Top court sets aside Karnataka HC interim order allowing board exams for Classes 5, 8, 9, and 11

The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside an interim order of a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court permitting the State to hold board exams for Classes 5, 8, 9, and 11.

A Bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mittal observed that the Division Bench of the High Court ought not have allowed the conduct of board examination through an interim order after two Single Bench decisions had earlier quashed similar notifications or circulars.

The Supreme Court observed that the proposed board exam was prima facie in the teeth of Sections 2(f), 16 and 30 of the Right to Education Act, which prohibit exposing children to the rigorous of board exams till they finish elementary education.

The State notifications were challenged by the Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association and Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools. The Single Bench of the Karnataka HC had quashed the notification.

The Single Judge had relied on the decision of a Coordinate Bench in the previous year to quash similar circulars of the State to conduct board exams for classes five and eight.

However, a Division Bench of the High Court had the very next day stayed the Single Judge order.

The petitioners, represented by advocates K.V. Dhananjay, A. Velan, Sudharsan Suresh, Anirudh Kulkarni, Sainath DM, Ananya Krishna and Dheeraj SJ, had moved the top court.

In 2023, the State was allowed by a Division Bench to quietly withdraw its appeal against the Single

Judge order. “As a result, the government officers obtained immunity from the educational statutes solely by virtue of the interim order passed by the Division Bench,” the petitioners had told the top court.

As exams of Class 11 are already over, the Department of School Education and Literacy has postponed the ongoing board exams for the Classes 5, 8, and 9, after the top court quashed the interim order.