SC plea seeks scrapping of state board exams too

NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court for cancellation of the State Board examinations as amid the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

The petition was filed on Tuesday by child rights activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai and seven others on behalf of students from different states and Union territories.

In their plea, the petitioners told the apex court that more than 10 million students studying in Class 12 in state boards across the country are uncertain about their future as the respective state boards have postponed the decision to conduct or scrap the exams.

At the time of filing the petition, the decision of the Centre to cancel this year’s Class 12 board examinations conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) had not been taken.

At a meeting on Tuesday chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was decided to call off the Class 12 exams conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in view of the raging pandemic. Later, CISCE also decided to cancel the Class 12 board examinations this year.

With the top court expected to take up on Thursday, a petition filed by advocate Mamta Sharma to cancel Class 12 CBSE and CISCE Boards, now stands cancelled. The petitioners seeking cancellation of state board exams have decided to appear during the proceedings and mention the matter to the court for urgent hearing. Advocate Shashibhushan P Adgaonkar who will represent the eight petitioners in court said, “Our petition is ready for hearing but has not been listed yet. I have received instructions to mention the matter on Thursday when the hearing on the plea for cancellation of CBSE and CISCE examinations is taken up.”