The petitioner states that since most of the colleges close admissions by August 31, students who have to take the compartment exam will be left out of the 2020-21 admission cycle.
A group of students has approached the Supreme Court seeking extension of the college admission deadlines set for August 31, as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is yet conduct its compartment exams.
The petitioners state that since most of the colleges close admissions by August 31, students who have to take the compartment exam (re-test due to inadequate marks in papers) will be left behind the 2020-21 admission cycle.
The plea filed through Advocate-on-Record Manju Jetley and Advocates Sanjay Kumar Dubey, Tanvi Dubey and Sanpreet Singh Ajmani, also seeks to quash the latest decision of the CBSE to conduct the compartment exams amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is claimed that this decision violates the Right to Equality, since other CBSE students were exempted from appearing for board exams.
The petitioners have also prayed that the students giving these compartment exams be given an alternative mode of assessment. The plea reads,
"Impugned decision of the C.B.S.E. is completely an after thought. It has failed to take into consideration the reasons why the C.B.S.E. exams were postponed in March 2020 and further cancelled in June 2020. It also fails to take into consideration an alternative innovative mechanism devised by the C.B.S.E. for the students who had failed in Class X and XII."
Plea filed in Supreme Court
The plea states that usually, deadlines for college admissions are scheduled in such a way that students giving compartment exams are not adversely affected. However, for this year, the deadline remains August 31 in most cases, in which case such students will be left and thus "injustice" will be meted out to them.
The plea further questions CBSE's decision to hold compartment exams at at time when COVID-19 cases continue to surge. It states,
"Impugned Circular is being issued at the time when the entire country is at huge risk of being exposed to the virus and when there is an exponential growth in the total number of cases in the country which has already crossed the tally of 2.91 million and when the country has also reached the stage of community spread."
