No Online Exams for CBSE ICSE Class 10, 12 students; Supreme Court dismisses petition on hybrid mode

SC Hearing on CBSE, ICSE Offline Exams: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea by a group of six students demanding an option to hold CBSE and CISCE boards class 10 and 12 exams in online mode along with the centre-based offline exams on 18th November. The bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar dismissed the petition observing that the exams have already commenced on November 16 and intervention at this juncture will disturb the process.

The Supreme Court bench in its order stated, “…as the exam has commenced on November 16, it will be inappropriate to intervene now and disturb the entire process. At this belated stage, the Writ Petition cannot be entertained. We hope and trust that all the precautions will be taken by the authorities and COVID SOP will be adhered to.” 

Adequate Arrangements Have Been Made for Conduction of Exam 

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the CBSE said that adequate arrangements have been adopted to address the concerns of the petitioners regarding COVID and the examination centres have been increased from 6,500 to 15,000 to ensure more social distancing and less travel time. Now only 12 students will sit in a centre, as opposed to 40 students earlier. Also, the exam time has been reduced from 3 hours to 90 minutes. 

Plea Demands Board Exams in Hybrid Mode

The petition filed before the apex court notes that considering that the Board Exams by CBSE and ICSE Boards are held throughout the country, some areas are more affected by COVID-19 pandemic as compared to others. Therefore, having a uniform policy of offline exams for the entire country might put students at unnecessary risk. Furthermore, the plea requests the court to direct both the board’s to instead hold the CBSE 10th and 12th Term 1 Exam, which are already underway and ICSE and ISC Exams in hybrid mode wherein students would have the choice to appear for the exam either in offline or online mode. 

Risk of COVID-19 Exposure due to the Exam

In addition to this, the petition also notes that that CBSE Term 1 Exam, which is already underway for both Class 10 and 12 students, is being held over a period of nearly 1 month. This leads to prolonged exposure of children to COVID-19. In this regards, the petitioners also note that "Continuous exposure through offline exams sharply increases the risk of infection to COVID-19 rendering the impugned action as arbitrary and in violation of Right to Health.” They also add that holding Board Exams in hybrid mode is the need of the hour and better facilitates social distancing, reduced strain on logistical constraints.

Parent’s Consent through Coercion

Another argument made by the petitioners in their plea claims that the Schools have been asked to get parents’ consent allowing their children to appear for the Term 1 Exam. However, the way this consent is being obtained is through amounts to coercion. They also add that many parents have complained of the same saying that their permission was obtained by resorting to misrepresentation and coercion. The petitioner also says that ”Obtaining consent without giving a choice is “ex-facie arbitrary and illegal”.

Given these arguments, it would be interesting to see what stand the Supreme Court takes on the matter in today’s hearing. However, considering that the CBSE Term 1 Exams are already underway and ICSE and ISC Exam for CISCE are expected to start from next week, many experts have hinted that the court might choose not to intervene in the matter, at the moment.

Also Read: ASER 2021: Enrolment in Govt Schools, Paid Tuitions Increase during Pandemic Year