The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations has to clarify to ICSE and ISC examinees what methodology it will adopt to grade them if they decide not to write the pending papers in July, Bombay High Court said on Wednesday.

“Students and parents should understand how they will be assessed before they give their option to the council,” the court observed, a senior counsel told Metro from Mumbai.

Earlier, the council had told schools to let it know by June 22 which students would like to write the pending papers and who would want to be assessed on the basis of their school performance. There was no clarity on how the council would factor in marks from schools in the board exam mark sheets.

On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S.S. Shinde was hearing a public interest litigation filed by a parent of an ICSE examinee in Maharashtra when it asked the council to come up with the clarification before the students could make a choice.

During Monday’s hearing, the council had told the court that it would leave it to the students to decide whether they would write the remaining papers or want to be assessed on their performance in school.

On Wednesday, the court told the council that the methodology should be “transparent” and “fair” and students and guardians should know about it so that examinees could make an informed choice.

“The council should make it clear what it means by saying it will assess students on the basis of internal assessment or pre-board exam. Will it take into consideration students’ overall conduct in class and their daily attendance… or only the pre-board marks? Or, does it have any other plan?” the bench asked, according to the senior counsel.

The court on Wednesday asked the council to post the methodology on its website “preferably” by Saturday (June 20). The case will be heard again on June 22.

If the council fails to finalise the methodology by Saturday, the matter will be discussed in the court on June 22.

Maharashtra advocate-general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told the court the state government was against conducting the board exam in the middle of a pandemic.

But the government could consider allowing the council to hold the exams based on the number of examinees opting to write the pending papers. After the hearing, the council asked the heads of all its affiliated schools to provide the marks of the pre-board exams of the students who wrote the ICSE and ISC exams in 2019.