SC to hear on December 6 plea seeking direction to CBSE to maintain original results

The Supreme Court Monday said it will hear on December 6 a plea filed by some students, who had appeared in the CBSE examinations this year for improving their marks in class 12, seeking a direction to the board to maintain their original results.

The plea has been filed by 11 students who were declared passed in the original results by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on the basis of the evaluation policy of 30:30:40 and were subsequently allowed to appear in the improvement exams held in August-September this year.

It said the petitioners have been either declared failed or awarded very less marks in the improvement examinations and they apprehend that their original results, in which they were declared pass, will be cancelled.

Read more: SC rejects plea for online term exams for Class X and XII

When the matter came up for hearing before a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar, the counsel appearing for the CBSE said he has received a copy of the plea on Sunday and needs some time to seek instructions.

The bench posted the matter for hearing on December 6.

The plea, filed through advocate Ravi Prakash, has sought a direction to the CBSE not to declare as fail the class 12 students who were already declared pass in the original results on the basis of the evaluation policy.

It has further sought a direction to the concerned authorities to maintain the original result of the petitioners instead of the improvement examination result.

The plea referred to a clause of CBSE's evaluation policy of June 17 which says that the students who are not satisfied with the assessment, done based on the policy, will be given an opportunity to appear in examinations to be conducted by the board when conditions are conducive for holding the examinations.

As per the clause, the marks scored in the later exams will be considered final.

Claiming that this clause is contradictory to CBSE’s own other circulars, the plea has referred to a March 16 circular which says that “better of the two marks obtained in the subject will be considered for final declaration of marks” and “candidates who will improve their performance will be issued combined mark sheet”.

It said there is no specific bylaw which says that the original mark sheet will become invalid or be cancelled for students appearing in improvement examination.

The plea said the purpose and object of providing an opportunity to appear in the offline examination was to give an opportunity to improve marks and not to put the students in disadvantage or to declare those, who were already declared pass, as fail.

“The inaction of the respondent (CBSE) is tantamount to taking away the fundamental rights of innocent students under Article 21 of the Constitution, that is, right to life which includes right to livelihood and Article 21A of the Constitution which is based upon higher education.

"Hence, the action of the official respondent is unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary in the present set of facts and circumstances as violative of Articles 21, 21A and 14 of the Constitution,” the plea said.

As per a press statement of CBSE, 34,317 regular students had appeared in the offline examinations for the purpose of improvement of their marks, it said.

On June 17, the top court had approved the assessment schemes of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and the CBSE, which had adopted the 30:30:40 formula for evaluation of marks for students of 12th standard based on results of class 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

The apex court had approved the assessment schemes of the CISCE and the CBSE and had said that it should incorporate the provision for dispute resolution in case students want correction of the final result.

The CBSE had earlier said it would evaluate class 12 students for theory based on 30 per cent marks from class 10 board, 30 per cent from class 11, and 40 per cent from marks based on the performance in the unit, mid-term, and pre-board tests in class 12.

It had said that marks obtained by class 12 students in practical and internal assessment on an actual basis as uploaded by schools on the CBSE Portal would be also considered in deciding final results.