Govt to take decision on Class 12 exams within 2 days: AG tells SC

The government will take a final decision within the next two days on whether to conduct class 12 board exams amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court was informed on Monday.

Attorney General KK Venugopal told this to a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari which said if the Centre decides to depart from the last year’s policy, wherein the remaining board exams were cancelled due to the pandemic, then it must give tangible reasons for it. “No issue. You take the decision. You are entitled to it. If you are departing from the policy of last year, then you must give tangible reasons for it,” the bench told Venugopal.

Observing that the last year’s decision was taken after deliberations, the apex court said, If you are departing from that policy, please give us good reasons so that we can examine it. The bench was hearing a plea seeking directions to cancel Class 12 exams of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) amid pandemic situation.

The apex court on June 26, 2020 had approved schemes of the CBSE and CISCE for cancellations of remaining board examinations scheduled from July 1 to

15 last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and also approved their formula for assessment of examinees. During the hearing conducted through video-conferencing, the Attorney General told the bench, the government will take a final decision within the next two days. Venugopal said that last year, board exams for some papers were over before the COVID-induced national lockdown was imposed in March 2020.

“We don’t want to go into the nitty-gritty at this stage. You take the decision. Hope has been expressed by the petitioner that policy adopted last year can be adopted this year too. If you are departing from that, you must have tangible reasons for it, the bench observed.