[Class 12 Exams amid COVID-19] Assam, Tripura, Punjab tell Supreme Court they have cancelled Class 12 State Board exams

The Supreme Court was informed on Monday by the States of Assam, Tripura and Punjab that they have cancelled Class 12 State Board exams in view of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. .The Court noted the submissions and also asked the counsel appearing for the governments of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to take instructions on this aspect by tomorrow. .The matter will be taken up tomorrow at 2 pm along with the cases concerning the assessment policy to be adopted for evaluation of Class 12 students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) after the Class 12 examinations of both boards were cancelled due to COVID-19..The Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar adjourned the matter till tomorrow after being intimated that there are writ petitions filed challenging the decisions taken by CBSE and ICSE regarding the assessment policies put in place.."During hearing, [Senior Advocate] Vikas Singh appearing for intervenors said that there is a petition questioning the decision of the boards. Let those petitions be listed tomorrow at 2 pm. Matter adjourned for 2 pm tomorrow," the Court said in its order today..During the hearing, the Court said that it would first examine the merits of the assessment scheme proposed for CBSE and ICSE students in lieu of Board exams. ."We will examine points in both schemes. If there is some issue, we can understand, but we cannot go by perception of someone," the Court observed. .Addressing Attorney General KK Venugopal, the Court also remarked, "Attorney General, we have agreed with your scheme in principle. But we will hear the petitioners before we suggest modifications.".Appearing for the Uttar Pradesh Parents Association, Senior Advocate Vikas Singh contended that there should be physical exams with double masks..Advocate Abhishek Choudhary, appearing for compartment students, however, registered objection to the conduct of physical exams for compartment students, considering that it may affect the opportunity of such students to sit for competitive exams scheduled later this year. "As per the CBSE affidavit, they have submitted that they will be able to conduct board exam for compartment students in August while many competitive exams are scheduled for July," he pointed out..The Supreme Court, in turn, noted that even other students will be appearing for such exams..Choudhary requested that the counselling for such competitive exams should be deferred till declaration of board exam results.All these pleas will be heard on Tuesday at 2 pm. .The CBSE had, on June 17, submitted an assessment policy before the Supreme Court to evaluate Class 12 students.As per the assessment policy, the theory portion of the evaluation will be computed by giving 40 per cent weightage to Class 12 marks, 30 percent for Class 11 marks, and 30 per cent for Class 10 marks.The ICSE had also proposed a scheme to compute marks based on the performance of students in the last 6 years.The Supreme Court had given its approval to the policies proposed by both CBSE and ICSE, in principle..However, the schemes were opposed by the Uttar Pradesh Parents Association, Lucknow, which said that the policy links the performance of the present 12th standard students with that of the past years' performance of former students and such a system is "wholly arbitrary" and cannot be legally sustained. The affidavit submitted by the association in response to the CBSE policy said that as per the proposed policy, the total of 30% marks from 10th and 11th and 40% from 12th shall not exceed the best marks obtained by ex-students in the said school in the specific reference year by more than 2 marks. That is, if a present student scores 95% in 10th, 11th and pre-board of 12th in any subject, but if in the past, the maximum obtained by a student in that school is 76, then the maximum which the 95% scoring student will get is 76% plus 2% grace, bringing it to only 78%. The policy was also opposed by private and compartment students who took objection to the CBSE decision to hold offline/physical examinations for them. The plea stated that CBSE's decision amounts to unequal treatment to private/patrachar/second chance compartment candidates of Class 10 and 12 since board exams for regular students have been cancelled. By forcing such compartment candidates to appear for online examinations, the CBSE is putting their lives at risk, it was contended. .Linking present CBSE students with past performance of ex-students arbitrary: UP Parents Association opposes CBSE policy for Class 12 assessment.Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.