The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea for conducting Class X and XII board examinations through online mode, saying the petition was “ill advised” and “premature” and has caused “false hopes” and “confusion” among the students.
The apex court noted that the authorities such as CBSE are yet to notify the rules and regulations and procedure for conduct of this year’s exams through the physical mode. As such no mandamus can be issued at this juncture.
“What kind of petitions are being filed? How can you keep filing such petitions? Such kind of petitions can only confuse the students. For the past three days, we were seeing news reports on this PIL. It has caused false hopes. It has caused lot of confusion among the students all over,” Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, heading a three-judge bench, observed.
The bench, which included Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice C.T. Ravi Kumar, was dealing with the PIL filed by child rights activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai, challenging the decision of the CBSE, ICSE and state boards to conduct this year’s exams through the physical mode.
The bench said no PIL can be filed on these issues as only an “aggrieved person” (meaning student) can file such a petition, if his/her right is any way violated.
The court told counsel Prashant Padmanabhan, appearing for the petitioner, that the authorities are yet to decide the rules and dates, yet the petitioner chose to file the petition seeking the relief.
Justice Khanwilkar said once the rules are finalised and if the decision of the authorities is not in consonance with rules and regulations, then it is open to challenge which shall be dealt with on its own merits.
“We will not issue any directions. There are rules and regulations in place and authorities are working,” the bench observed.
The counsel argued that physical classes were not held for the entire year and there was no reason why the exams should be held in the present circumstances.
This prompted the court to ask: “Who are you to decide? Or we to decide? Let the authorities decide the issue,” Justice Khanwilkar sternly told the counsel.