SC dismisses plea seeking cancellation of remaining Class 10 state board exams
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Sunday in an urgent hearing dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of the remaining two Class 10 examinations scheduled to be held on June 29-30, to be conducted by the board of secondary education of Rajasthan. The top court said that the petitioner has not referred to even a single instance in the deficiency of facilities or flouting of any protocol specified by the central or state government in any examination centre, whilst conducting such examination during the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna, in an urgent hearing conducted on Sunday evening through videoconferencing, dismissed the plea filed by one Maghi Devi.
"We find no infirmity in the view expressed by the High Court. The petitioner has not referred to even a single instance in this Special Leave Petition to highlight the deficiency of facilities or for that matter flouting of any protocol specified by the central government or state government in any examination centre, whilst conducting such examination during the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the bench said.
The top court said that the High Court, while dismissing the contempt petition, had taken note of the fact that the examinations had commenced from June 18. It said that as per the schedule published in the official website of the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan, Ajmer, the examination proceeded even on June 19 and 20, and June 22 to June 27 on every day. "Despite this, not even a solitary instance has been brought to our notice where complaint about inappropriate facilities or the possibility of exposure of the students due to breach of standard operating procedure, as the case may be," the bench said, while dismissing the appeal for cancellation of remaining examination. During hearing, senior advocate Manish Singhvi appearing for the state government referred to June 17 order of apex court in which it refused to interfere with the High Court order allowing Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination in Karnataka due to Covid-19.