The Central government on Tuesday decided to scrap the Class XII Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exam for the year 2021.

The decision was taken after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

The CBSE exam for class 10 had already been cancelled.

The decision comes close on the heels of a petition filed before the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of Class XII Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) exams amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

The plea by Delhi-based lawyer Mamta Sharma prayed that notifications issued by ICSE and CBSE postponing Class XII exams to an unspecified date be struck down.

The petitioner instead urged that the exam be scrapped altogether for this academic year and marks be computed using the methodology employed last year.

"Issue a writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to cancel the examination of Class XII and devise an objective methodology to declare the result of class XII within a specific time frame," the petitioner prayed.

The plea cited similar case of Amit Bathla v. CBSE, which came up before the top court last year in which the Supreme Court directed the respondents to compute and declare the result of Class XII students on the basis of their earlier assessment.

The petitioner, therefore, sought an interim direction to declare the results of Class XII students by applying the same methodology.

Sharma pointed out that ICSE and CBSE have already accepted the severity of the COVID-19 situation persisting in the country since they cancelled the Class X board exams.

However, the exams of Class XII students were arbitrarily postponed instead of being cancelled, the plea submitted.

When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, Attorney General KK Venugopal had told the Supreme Court that the Central government would decide in two days whether or not ICSE and CBSE Class XII board exams will be held this year.