The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of offline board examinations for classes 10 and 12 to be conducted by the CBSE and several other boards this year, saying such petitions give “false hope” and create “confusion” among students who are going to appear in these exams.
The apex court observed that the petition is “ill-advised” and “premature” and the authorities are yet to take appropriate decisions about conducting exams of the various boards.
“Such petitions give false hope to the persons who are going to appear in the examinations. Those students will be misled by this petition. Let the authorities take decision. If the decision is wrong, challenge that decision. Here, you want to pre-empt everything,” a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar told the lawyer appearing for the petitioners.
“This creates not only false hopes, it creates confusion all over to students who are preparing,” said the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar. The counsel appearing for the petitioners said that most of the state boards have not yet declared the dates for examinations.
“Whenever examination is due, they will declare those dates, what is the problem,” the bench observed. At the outset, the counsel appearing for the petitioners, A S Sahai, and others, referred to the order passed by the apex court last year in the matter of board exams amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bench said what had happened in the past cannot be the basis to pass order now. “Entertaining such petitions is creating more confusion in the system. Let the authorities take decision,” the bench said.
“What kind of petitions are being filed,” the top court said, adding, “It is not that because they were entertained last year because of the peculiar circumstances and situation, we will go on and this will become a norm.”
It said there are rules and regulations in place and the authorities will be working in tandem on the issue. The counsel argued that classes were not properly conducted in most of the states. The bench said the authorities are aware of the situation and they are supervising it.
After the counsel referred to the ongoing Assembly elections in some states including Uttar Pradesh, the bench observed, “This is something which is unheard of. What kind of public interest litigation is this.” The counsel argued that exam dates of most of the boards have not been declared yet and it would further delay the admissions process.
“Who are you to decide that? Who are you and who are we to decide those dates? They know the ground realities. They have to make logistical arrangements. They will take overall view of the situation and then take a decision,” the bench said.
Courtesy The Hindustan Times
