Supreme Court Puts On Hold Karnataka Govt's Board Exams For Classes 5, 8 & 9

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 12) put on hold the Board Exams proposed to be held by the Karnataka Government for students of Classes 5, 8 and 9 of the schools affiliated to the State Board.

The Court allowed the appeals filed by organisations of private schools and parents challenging the interim order passed by a division bench of the Karnataka High Court on March 7 staying a single bench judgment which quashed the Government's decision to hold board exams for Classes 5, 8,9 and 11. The Supreme Court set aside the interim order of the High Court division bench and asked it to decide the main appeals expeditiously. As exams for Class 11 are already over, the Supreme Court's intervention effectively puts on hold exams being conducted in the state for Classes 5, 8 and 9 in schools affiliated to the State Board.

It asked the Division Bench of the High Court to decide the main appeals filed by the State, on merits, as expeditiously as possible, without being influenced by the top Court's observations. Meanwhile, the stay order has been set aside, effectively reviving the Single Judge's judgment.

While passing the order, the Bench recorded that it was apprised of summative exams for class 11 being already over, while those for classes 5,8 and 9 have already commenced (since yesterday) and are likely to be concluded on 18.03.2024.

After the dictation of the order was over, Justice Trivedi remarked to the State's counsels, "We need not clarify that you (State) shall not proceed further with the exams." Mithal, J also added, "Don't wait for the order to be uploaded".

Factual Background

Initially, Karnataka government had brought out two notifications appointing the KSEAB (Karnataka School Examination & Assessment Board) as competent authority to conduct the "Summative Assessment-2" exams for students of Classes 5, 8, and 9 and the annual examination for Class 11, studying in government, aided and unaided schools and colleges, following the Karnataka State Board Syllabus.

This decision was challenged before the Karnataka High Court. A Single Judge quashed the government notifications, however, in State's appeal to a Division Bench, the Single Judge's judgment was stayed. Challenging the Division bench order, organizations of private schools and parents filed special leave petitions before the Supreme Court.

Observations

Perusing the material and the orders of the High Court, the Supreme Court noted that the Single Judge had followed another Single Bench order passed in 2023 a previous petition of the petitioners' on a similar issue.  

As the main appeals are pending with the Division Bench, the Bench did not comment on the merits of the case at this stage, but it said that the notifications prima facie appeared to be in violation of Section 30 of the RTE Act and created unnecessary complications in the education policy affecting career of students.

It opined that since the government notifications had already been set aside by the single judge of the High Court, the Division Bench should not have permitted the state government to proceed further with the examinations.

During the arguments, the petitioners averred that State did not have benefit of a considered judgment by the Division Bench of the High Court. Rather, it had only obtained an interim order, like last year. They also contended that Board exams are not permitted under the RTE Act for subject classes, irrespective of whether a student is failed or not.

State, on the other hand, pled that the exams in question were not really "exams", but "summative assessments" intended to prepare the students for Class 10 & 12 Board Exams, but the Court was not convinced. "Name does not make difference...it is being conducted by the Board...," it said.

A second contention raised by the State was that under the policy framework of the impugned notifications, students were not required to "pass" the exams. This contention led the Court to pose a straightforward question ie whether the assessment marks were to count towards final exams? When the answer from the State came in affirmative, the bench indicated that the same would amount to interference with statutory provisions.

"We are not satisfied...there is a bar under Section 30 of RTE Act...why should students appear if they are not required to pass?," the Bench said. Section 30 of the RTE Act provides that no child shall be required to pass any Board examination till completion of elementary education.

Another State contention was that schools in Karnataka were not adhering to standards under Karnataka Education Act, and the same necessitated assessment of school performance. It further urged that the main objection in the present case had been about prior publication, not Section 30 of RTE Act. None of these weighed with the Court.

In fact, the Court commented that the State should not "complicate" the education system, as Board exams have their own scare.

Counsels for petitioners/School Associations: Advocates KV Dhananjay, Sudharsan Suresh, Anirudh Kulkarni, Sainath DM, Ananya Krishna and Dheeraj SJ; AoR A Velan

Case Title: Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association Karnataka v. State of Karnataka and Ors., SLP(C) No. 6256/2024 (and connected matters)

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