The Supreme Court has on Sunday dismissed a plea challenging order of High Court of Rajasthan where it upheld the decision of board examinations being conducted for class X in the state. As a result, the students will now have to appear for the remaining papers under RBSE on June 29 and June 30.
A three-judge Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari & Sanjiv Khanna heard the plea in a special Sunday hearing today.
Advocate Rishi Kapoor and Ronak Karanpuria appeared for the Petitioners and Senior Advocate Manish Singhvi and Advocate DK Devesh appeared for the Respondents.
The Bench did not find it appropriate to intervene , and also cited the decision of the Court in “Rajashree v. Karnataka”, wherein It was stated that the Courts should have minimum interference in academic issues
The Bench also noted that Rajasthan HC order under challenge was passed a month back and since then there has been no COVID19 positive cases located in the examination centres, and the state government is taking precautions.
The Court also stated that the petition has been filed at the last moment, when the exams are set to start from tomorrow , and after all the necessary precautions have already been taken by the State Government. No major inconvenience have been pointed out by the petitioners.
A special leave petition was filed before the Court by parent of an aggrieved student stating that the decision of conducting the Secondary examination of the remaining two papers on June 29 & 30 should be set aside in wake of the pandemic as its erroneous.
According to the petition, around 120 schools which are designated examination centres were used to quarantine people for shelter labourers in transit and , conducting examinations now wrong illegal and discriminatory as it will jeopardise the health of the students who will take the exams
The plea states that the decision to conduct the remaining examinations during the midst of covid19 is arbitrary and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
The petitioner had also cited the recent decision of the Supreme Court which led to the scrapping of Class 10th board examinations for the safety of students.
According to the petitioner, the High Court didn’t consider that no solution has been given to practical problems of the students including problem of movements of the students residing in the containment zones and the unavailability of private vehicles for all students, thereby restricting the movement
This decision comes after the Central Board of Secondary Education canceled the exams scheduled for Class 10th in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
-India Legal Bureau