AMN
The Supreme Court today permitted the Centre and the CBSE to cancel the remaining board examinations due to COVID-19 pandemic and gave the go-ahead to its scheme to award marks to students for the cancelled papers scheduled to be held in July.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna permitted the CBSE to issue the notification for the cancellation of examinations.
The bench after perusing the notification of CBSE allowed the board to issue it and said that Class 10 and 12 exams of CBSE scheduled for July 1-15 will be governed by this order. During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the CBSE, said that the assessment scheme will consider marks achieved by students in the last three papers of board exams.
The Apex court was hearing pleas seeking relief, including scrapping of remaining exams of Class 12 scheduled from July 1-15, in view of increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Similar relief was sought by the ICSE Board as well. Both CBSE and ICSE told the top court that the results of the class 10 and 12 board exams can be declared by mid of July.
The CBSE’s assessment scheme approved by the top court said that for the students of both classes 10 and 12, who have completed all their examinations, their results will be declared based on their performance in the exams.
It said that students who have appeared in the examinations in more than three subjects, the average of the marks obtained in the best three performing subjects will be awarded in the subjects whose examinations have not been conducted.
The scheme said that for students who have appeared in the examinations in only three subjects, the average of the marks obtained in the best two performing subjects will be awarded in the subjects whose examinations have not been conducted.
The CBSE board said that the examinees of class 12 students of CBSE Board will however have the option of either taking the exams later or to move ahead with the assessment based on their performance in the last exams. The re-exam option will not be available to class 10 students.
The top court was informed that states like Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have conveyed their inability to conduct board exams.