"Covid Not Applicable To Private Students?"-Supreme Court Hearing- Courtroom Exchange In CBSE/ICSE/Compartment/Private Students

Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Khanwilkar on Teusday heard different petitions relating to CBSE/ICSE/Compartment/Private Class XII Examinations. Advocate Abhishek Chaudhary, for 1152 candidates seeking cancellation of private/compartment exams, sought to submit that the right to equality in admissions to colleges of private or compartment students is affected by clause 29 of the CBSE scheme which says that for Private / Patrachar / 2nd chance Compartment candidates etc., Examination will be conducted by the board as and when the conditions become conducive for conduct of such examinations. The advocate advanced that the CBSE has indicated a probable window of 15th August to 15th September during which their examination also can be conducted depending upon conducive conditions. "Yesterday only, IIT Kanpur has come up with a study which says that the third wave might peak in September, AIIMS chief has given a statement two days back that there is a mutated version of a strain of the virus which would be responsible for the third wave which is likely in six weeks from today. We don't have bio-bubbles, we don't have other protection, students are not vaccinated. There can be no classification between regular students and private students so far as the application of the scheme is concerned; the classification has to be reasonable!", he argued"We are talking about the balance of interest. It will only be served if the result is declared for all the students in a time-bound manner at one particular date. If there are two separate dates, then there will be problems as there are several universities in India and abroad who take admission only on the basis of merit, which is class 12th exam result", he continued."Remember you are representing the class of students who have taken compartment", said Justice Khanwilkar."But under the private category, those students are also placed who were not belonging to compartment class, but who could not appear in the exam because of their medical condition", replied the advocate.The AG advanced that the exam will be held whenever COVID situation so permits and that all of these candidates are entitled to appear in the exam as private candidates."The number of students who are going to appear for improvisation is less and the number of private/compartment candidates put together is still less. Then CBSE or ICSE has no reason to delay conducting the examination, they can proceed with the conducting of the examination? You may declare results on 31st July and you may give them the option to confirm online within one week whether they want to appear in the exam. Those students who wish to appear for improvisation, that number will be known for you. You can immediately conduct the exam? And then for these compartment students, in the first week or second week of August you can conduct their exam if the number is less?", the bench asked of the AG."Till 31st July, CBSE is tied up with 14.5 lakh students...", responded the AG."Does it mean compartment students will not get admission this year? They will have to wait for one more year?", asked the bench."They will get it because September is the time of admission and it is from 15th of August that we are planning to conduct the examination", replied the AG."Is it possible to offer them a solution as regards clause 29?", asked the bench."I am told that the compartment students were given the opportunity last year where they failed and now they are asking for a third time liberty. But the exam has to be between 15th of August and 15th of September, depending upon the situation being conducive", told the AG.When the bench inquired from Mr. Chaudhary if it is true that it is the same students who had appeared last year and failed again, the advocate replied that clause 29 speaks of three categories of students- Private students, second compartment students and Patrachar students (who were unable to take class 11 exams and have now been allowed to directly sit for class 12 exams)"Assurance is given that the exam will be conducted before 15th of August, so what is the difficulty?", asked the bench."The central government has called off the examination of all the students. The notification issued by CBSE on 14th of April says that examination for all students of class 10th and 12th is called off. On 1st of June, they came up with another notification that all the examinations postponed earlier now stand cancelled. The PM said that all exams for class 12 students are cancelled. Examinations were cancelled because of Covid. Is this Covid situation not available for these private students?", argued the advocate."We are not entertaining this argument", said the bench."What will happen if a further date is appointed for the examination, which may or may not happen depending upon the situation? There are a large number of public universities and private institutes which take admission directly based on merit list, relying on class 12th...

"Covid Not Applicable To Private Students?"-Supreme Court Hearing- Courtroom Exchange In CBSE/ICSE/Compartment/Private Students

Mehal Jain

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