The Supreme Court on Thursday decided to examine why Kerala has still not cancelled the Class 11 exams conducted by its State board.
“Counsel for the petitioners shall serve a copy of the petition on the standing counsel for the State of Kerala as we are informed that it has not cancelled the 11th standard examination conducted by the State board,” a Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari ordered.
The court listed the case for hearing on June 21.
The Bench also asked Assam, Punjab, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh to explain their reasons for not cancelling their Class 12 exams.
The four States’ case has drawn the court’s attention, as out of 28 States, six had conducted the exams and 18 cancelled them.
“But four States [Assam, Punjab, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh] have not cancelled the examination as of now. Counsel for the petitioners shall serve the standing counsel for the above mentioned four States via email/online,” the court directed.
The Bench was hearing a petition filed by child rights activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai to cancel the State board exams due to the pandemic.
The CBSE, nudged by the Supreme Court, cancelled the Class 12 exams due to concerns over exposing children to infection. The CBSE and ICSE Boards on Thursday came up with an alternative assessment procedure to compute the marks of the students. The court has given the boards the green signal to notify their respective schemes.
Ms. Sahai, supported by parents, urged the court to direct the States also to come up with a similar uniform assessment system for the State boards too. They argued that the State board students should not be subject to a “step-motherly treatment”.
