High Court quashes govt. decision to hold board exams for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11

In a setback to the State government, the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday quashed the government's decision to hold board examinations for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 from the academic year 202324 and said it was taken without following the due process of law.

The court said the scheme of holding board exams was taken without framing the rules under Sections 22 and 145 of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, which mandates that the government will have to frame rules for the implementation of the examination system besides seeking views from stakeholders prior to finalising such rules.

“When the government intends to bring changes to the examination system affecting such a large number of students, it would be desirable as well as mandatory to follow the democratic procedure stipulated,” the court said. In case of failure to follow the stipulated procedure, the court said, “there need be no further justification to set such faulty measures at naught, regardless of merit of the policy and the object behind such measures”.

Justice Ravi V. Hosmani delivered the verdict while allowing the petitions filed by the Registered Unaided Private Schools’ Management AssociationKarnataka and Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools, Bengaluru.

The petitionerassociations had questioned the legality of the government’s October 6 and 9, 2023, notifications issued under Section 22 of the Act, through which the government decided to introduce board exams for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 to be conducted by the Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) in place of holding regular exams through the respective educational institutions.

The court also pointed out that the circulars issued in 2022 to hold summative assessment through the KSEAB for classes 5 and 8 were struck down by the court terming that those circulars, issued under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, were violative of the RTE Act as assessment through the KSEAB was introduced without framing the rules as per Section 16 of the RTE Act.

Quoting earlier judgments of the HC, which state that the government would have to be guided by prior framed rules in cases involving major changes, Justice Hosmani said that such a proposition of law would also be applicable for the drastic changes being introduced in examination system, more particularly on the eve of the examination.

Pointing out that when the students of classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 have not been subjected to board exams till now, the court said that the drastic change in the examination system that would affect substantially a large number of students, could not have been introduced without adhering to the norms. “The object of new examinations, howsoever laudable, cannot cure procedural defects” in issuing the impugned notifications, it observed.

It also observed that the State government, perhaps, invoked the provision of the Karnataka Education Act to introduce board exams for these classes as a similar attempt, to impose summative assessment for classes 5 and 8 by KSEAB introduced through circulars in 2022, was shot down as violative of the provisions of RTE Act by the court last year. Pointing out that the government cannot escape compliance with Section 145(4) of the Act, which mandates that every notification and rule made under the Karnataka Education Act should be laid before each House of the State Legislature within the prescribed deadline, the court said that the impugned notifications were not laid before the Houses of the legislature.