Delhi High Court allows Class X student to take CBSE exams after parents failed to pay school fee on time

The Delhi High Court last week directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to allow a Class X student, whose parents failed to pay his school fees on time, to sit for the upcoming first-term examinations scheduled to start from Tuesday (Arham Hassan Minor Through His Father Abid Hasan v. CBSE and Ors)..Justice Prateek Jalan directed that the child's results be kept in a sealed cover until further orders of the Court.“Having regard to the fact that the examinations, so far as petitioner’s papers are concerned, are due to commence from 30.11.2021, it is necessary to grant the petitioner some interim protection. The respondent-CBSE is, therefore, directed to permit the petitioner to participate in the first term examinations, subject to the result of this writ petition. It is made clear that this is purely an interim arrangement, without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties. The participation in the examination will not create any special equities in favour of the petitioner, and is only being permitted to ensure that he does not suffer irretrievable prejudice,” the Court said..The father of the child had defaulted on the fee payment because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of which the school did not permit him to attend online classes. This was argued to be in contravention of the circulars issued by the Department of Education in April and August 2020.The Court was informed that since the child did not attend the online classes, his attendance has fallen below 10-11 per cent even though the rule requires it to be over 75 per cent. As a result of this, he was not permitted to take the CBSE examinations.A complaint was made to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in this regard, who asked the school to take up the matter sympathetically and allow the child to appear in the Class X exams to avoid any untoward incident keeping in view the future of the child..Justice Jalan issued notice to the Delhi government, the CBSE and the concerned school. While the CBSE has been directed to place on record the notifications regarding board examinations, the school will place a statement of accounts pertaining to the child.The Court added that if the father deposits the current fee arrears, the school will consider permitting him to attend classes so that a similar situation does not occur for the final examinations..Advocate Mahboob Alam Inayati appeared for the petitioner. Advocates Ashok Kumar and Ujjwal Goel represented CBSE, whereas Advocates Santosh Kumar Tripathi, Anuj Aggarwal, Arun Panwar and SK Dwivedi appeared for the Department of Education..[Read Order]