No relief for Karnataka government as high court stands firm on SSLC evaluation rules

Bengaluru: In a big setback for state govt, Karnataka high court Tuesday declined to review its April 15 order wherein a direction was issued for conducting the valuation of the recently conducted SSLC exams as per the existing rules, i.e., the revised circular dated Oct 28, 2025.Justice ES Indiresh, who heard the arguments of advocate general Shashikiran Shetty and the petitioner-students' counsel, noted that there is no error apparent in the order passed by him on April 15 and hence, the court is not inclined to review it.Justice Indiresh noted the notification pertaining to draft rules, ie, Karnataka Secondary Examination Board First (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2026, published to amend the Karnataka Secondary Examination Board First Regulations, was issued on April 10, well after the completion of SSLC exams on April 2, and at the time of disposal of the writ petition filed by the students, practically, there was no rule promulgated by the competent authority in force. The judge however, curtailed some portion of paragraph 8 of the April 15 order wherein court had held that "any subsequent modification is contrary to Article 14 of the Constitution of India".As the advocate general submitted that the said portion would affect state govt's right, the judge agreed and added it is always open for the govt to modify the rules in accordance with the law. During the hearing, the AG submitted that the petitioners had relied on a newspaper article quoting the minister for primary and secondary education — a statement that was already the subject of a PIL petition in which the HC imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioners. He further claimed the grading system was contemplated as a large number of students, mostly from rural areas, were found failing in said subject. At this juncture, Justice Indiresh wanted to know whether the govt wanted to bring about this change so that all the students could pass.The judge further pointed out that a section of students do have Kannada as their third language and if the marks system is replaced by a grading system, those students may not study the subject seriously. "If you ask those students to list the Jnanpith awardees of Kannada, they may include Pampa and Ranna (10th century poets) in the said list," the judge added.On their part, counsel for the petitioners submitted that doing away with the marks system would hamper the chances of students who want to secure more marks in third language and thereby get higher ranks in the SSLC exam. On April 15, the HC had directed authorities to evaluate the recently conducted exam in accordance with the rules in force on the date the notification for the 2025-26 academic year was issued.
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