The Supreme Court rejected a plea to cancel board exams for grades 10 and 12 through physical mode, saying on Wednesday that such petitions only give “false hope” to students preparing for exams and create “more confusion”.
The court of Judges AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar warned the petitioner that it will impose exemplary charges if such petitions are re-filed, saying: “Maintaining such petitions will only create more confusion… Such petitions give false hopes to students who will appear for exams. They will be misled.”
The plea of children’s rights activist and advocate Anubha Shrivastava Sahai and ‘Student Union of Odisha’ urged the state boards, CBSE, CISCE, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), which are scheduled to hold exams, to come up with alternative modes of assessment instead of offline exams in view of the pandemic situation.
Appearing before the petitioner, lawyer Prashant Padmanabhan referred to the court’s order last year, which approved CBSE and CISCE’s decision to cancel board exams and provide an alternative assessment method.
But the bank said that was in the past and can’t be the basis for anything now. “We filed that petition because of a certain situation,” Judge Khanwilkar said. Expressed by defense counsel, the bank said the situation had not come to what it feared. “Let the authorities make a decision. We will not pass on orders. The authorities are working together” to finalize the exam dates and if there is a problem once it is finalized, those aggrieved can contact the concerned authorities.
When the defense counsel said “it will delay the admission process”, Judge Khanwilkar said: “Who are you to decide that? Who are we to decide? What kind of public interest lawsuits are filed?… Such petitions cause confusion .News everywhere for the last three days. This has got to stop… Let students do their job and let the authorities do their job.”
Justice Maheshwari also said: “This creates false hope and confusion”. The bank stopped imposing fees on the petitioners.
