PIL to Cancel Board Exams Dismissed by the Supreme Court

Vinod Kakumanu
March 2, 2022, 10:49 a.m.

A plea seeking cancellation of offline board exams for grades 10 and 12 to be conducted by all state boards, CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations), and NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling), was dismissed by the SC (Supreme Court) on February 23, 2022. The SC stated that such kinds of petitions were misleading, giving false hope to students.

The petition was filed by Anubha Shrivastava Sahai, a child rights activist, through advocate Prashant Padmanabhan, seeking cancellation of offline board exams and evaluation students through an alternate mode of assessment.

The bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar dismissed the petition, and said entertaining such petitions cause confusion in the system. He further stated that authorities were working on finalising exam dates and other arrangements, and if the aggrieved parties had any problems with those arrangements once they were finalised, then they could approach the authorities.

Concerns are being raised around the fact that due to online classes, students are unprepared for offline examinations. Dismissal of the plea by the Supreme Court, led disappointed students to express their’ helplessness’ and ‘’unpreparedness’ for offline board exams, on social media.