NEW DELHI: Amid the preparations of class 10 and 12 students for their upcoming broad exams, on Monday 21 February the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear a plea seeking the cancellations of the exams.
The SC agrees for the hearing of the plea that mentions the physical examination for classes 10 and 12 will be called off by all boards including INOS (National Institute of Open Schooling), ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) and CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education).
According to reports, on Monday a bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana, Hima Kohli and A S Bopanna agreed to introduce the matter for an early hearing in Supreme Court.
Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan stated that the matter is about class 10 and 12 board examinations as offline classes were unable to conduct for students due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He added that the petition needs to be put up for urgent listing before the Justices bench headed by Justice Am Khanwilkar.
Chief Justice N V Ramana also stated that this matter must go before the bench of Justice Am Khanwilkar.
The petition was earlier filed by activist Anubah Srivasthav Sahai in association with the Students Union of Odisha-NYCS seeking supervision to various state boards that are all set to conduct class 10 and 12 board exams physically to release a notification about the alternate mode of assessment in place of the physical examinations.
The petition further urged for the formation of a committee that will help to decide the process of internal assessment of all students and to ensure the announcement of results within the time limit by providing a deadline.
While speaking with the media the petitioner Anubah Srivasthav stated that the main priority is to entirely get rid of offline board examinations to be conducted in 2022. They want the Supreme Court to direct all the board for conducting assessments for students instead of physical classes.
She further added that throughout the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years, the students have faced a lot of problems including mental, physical and financial stress.
Therefore the main focus of the petition seeking cancellation of board exams is to ensure the students do not get any additional mental stress.
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