Petitioners are opposing board exams due to vested interests: Govt.
The State government on Wednesday claimed before the High Court of Karnataka that litigating associations of certain private unaided schools are opposing the board exams for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 owing to “vested interests” as many of their memberschools don’t teach lessons from the State governmentprescribed textbooks.
The associations are opposing the proposed uniform assessment as students, studying in certain schools run by the members of petitioners’ associations, are not in a position to answer questions based on the prescribed textbooks, it was argued on behalf of the government.
Also, the government claimed that no student or parent from any school had challenged the uniform assessment method proposed by the government for these classes through the Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) as the new assessment is in their interest.
Submissions in this regard were made before a Division Bench comprising Justice K. Somashekar and Justice Rajesh Rai K. during the hearing of the appeal filed by the government.
The appeal was filed against the March 6, 2024, judgement of a single judge, who had quashed the notification issued for conducting board exams through KSEAB. The single judge had held that such a major change in exam pattern could not have been introduced without framing rules as per the statutes.
However, the Division Bench on March 7 stayed the single judge’s order and allowed the government to hold exams from March 11 by passing an interim order.
What SC said
But the Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Division Bench’s interim order and asked it to hear the government’s appeal on the merit.
The apex court had said that the Division Bench could not have allowed the exams by an interim order, as in two different verdicts in 2023 and 2024 single judges of the High Court have had declared as illegal the government’s action of introducing board exam without framing the rules.
The Registered Unaided Private Schools’ Management AssociationKarnataka, Bengaluru and the Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools, Bengaluru had questioned the government’s October 2023 notifications for conducting uniform assessment for classes 5, 8, and 9 and annual exams for class 11 (first year preuniversity) through the KSEAB. The single judge had allowed their petitions.
The Bench adjourned further hearing on the appeal till March 14.