PLEA IN SC AGAINST MOVE FOR RE-EXAMS

Delhi Police's Crime Branch gets reply from Google on details sought; e-mail sender identified; NSUI protests

A plea has been moved in Supreme Court against the decision of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to cancel and re-conduct the economics exam of Class 12 held on March 26 and the mathematics paper of Class 10 on March 28 over suspicion of alleged question paper leak. The petition, filed by Shakarpur-resident Reepak Kansal, said there was no justification whatsoever on the part of CBSE in deciding to re-conduct the exams without holding any enquiry and finding out those responsible for such serious and intentional lapse which has resulted in extraneous financial consideration.

"It is to be noted that this year, 16,38,428 students are appearing for the Class 10 and 11,86,306 students for Class 12 in the CBSE exams. Therefore, to penalise the student community for an incident which is under investigation and without completion of that investigation/enquiry and issuing a notice on March 28, 2018 (for re-exams), affects the fundamental rights of students which is arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional," the plea said.

It alleged that reports about the question paper leakage was circulated on social media for several hours before the papers started.

"Despite information and complaints, CBSE denied any leak of question papers and urged students and parents to not to panic," the plea submitted.

It also sought a direction to the board to declare results based on the exam which was already conducted. The petition, which sought directions to the Centre and the CBSE, said that due to the inaction/wrong actions of CBSE officials, the fundamental rights of students, falling in the category of re-examination, has been violated as they would not have proper time and opportunity to appear in their respective competitive examinations.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police's Crime Branch has got a reply from Google on the details it had sought pertaining to the e-mail address from where the CBSE chairperson was sent a mail about the Class 10 mathematics paper being leaked, an official privy to the probe said. A senior police officer said they had got a reply from the online search engine but refused to divulge further details.

Also, amid the ongoing furore, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar confirmed that out of the 16 lakh students, over 14 lakh will not have to appear for the Mathematics re-exam.