[BREAKING] Class XII ICSE and CBSE board exams: Centre will take decision in two days, AG Venugopal tells Supreme Court

Attorney General for India KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court today that the Central government would decide in two days whether or not ICSE and CBSE Class XII board exams will be held this year..The Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari said in response to this submission,"No difficulty. You can take a decision. If you are departing from the policy last year, you must give good reasons. As last order was after detailed deliberations.".Justice Khanwilkar pointed out that the students had "sanguine hope" that the policy adopted last year should be followed this year..The matter will be heard on June 3..During the last hearing in the plea to cancel Class XII board exams of both the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), the Bench had asked the petitioner to be "optimistic" since there was a chance that the Central government would come up with a "resolution.".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..Plea in Supreme Court to cancel Class 12 CBSE, ICSE exams in view of COVID-19.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..The plea further stated that in view of the unprecedented health emergency and rising numbers of COVID-19, the conduct of examination (either offline/online or blended) in upcoming weeks is not possible.Delay in examination will cause irreparable loss to the students as time is of the essence in taking admission in higher education courses in foreign universities, it was contended..An intervention application was also mentioned by Youth Bar Association before the top court seeking similar relief. The plea was filed by Advocate Tanvi Dubey.