Supreme Court to CBSE: Burn midnight oil to fix problem by Friday

NEW DELHI: Noting that a delay in declaring results may derail the process of admission of students in West Asian countries to colleges, the Supreme Court on Monday directed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to take effective steps to announce Class XII Improvement Examination results at the earliest and asked it to present a plan for the purpose by Friday, regardless of the effort needed for the same.

A bench of Justices Manmohan and Vijay Bishnoi agreed to hear the plea of an overseas student from Saudi Arabia, who sought directives to CBSE for the declaration of his Class XII Improvement Examination result, and issued notice to the board. The court asked CBSE to come up with a solution by Friday to ensure that the interests of the petitioner and other students in a similar situation are protected.

The counsel appearing for the board sought more time to respond to the petition, but the bench refused the plea and posted the case for hearing on June 12. "If needed, then burn the midnight oil, but do it by Friday," it said.

Advocate Raj Kishor Choudhary, appearing for the petitioner student, told the bench that non-declaration of the result has seriously prejudiced his academic career, as he has already applied for admission to the university and failure to declare the result would deprive him of the opportunity to complete the admission process.

Didn’t get response on status of results: Petitioner

In view of the hardships being faced by thousands of students in West Asian countries because of the war, the government had issued a notification of an assessment scheme that provided that marks for cancelled examinations would be determined on the basis of performance in quarterly, half-yearly and pre-board exams.

The petitioner submitted that the status of his result was shown as ‘RL (result later)’ without any reason whatsoever being assigned, and his representation to the board has gone unheard, leaving him with no option but to approach the court.

“The petitioner specifically requested the respondents to either assess the cancelled subjects… in accordance with the assessment scheme, or permit the petitioner to appear in special examinations in terms of Clause 18 of the scheme. Despite repeated representations and reminders, no response has been received from the respondents,” the petition said.