National school boards CBSE and CISCE on Thursday informed the Supreme Court they would lay down “objective criteria” for assessing Class XII students, now that the board exams had been cancelled in view of the pandemic.

Before attorney-general K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the CBSE, made the submission, the bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari had granted two weeks to the two boards to come up with guidelines based on the “objective criteria” to be adopted.

On Tuesday, a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided that this year’s Class XII CBSE exams would be cancelled in the interest of the students.

The CISCE too scrapped the ISC exam the same day. The Class X board exams had been cancelled earlier.

The court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea by counsel K. Das, appearing for the CISCE, seeking four weeks’ time to place the details before the bench.

The court said a decision ought to be taken within two weeks as any further delay would affect the future prospects of students both within and outside the country.

“You (the CISCE) can do it overnight. Four weeks’ time is a little longer. We cannot give you three-four weeks’ time. You please place it before us in two weeks as students will have to take admission in colleges. Nowadays all communication is happening virtually,” the court told Das.

The court asked Venugopal: “What’s the objective principle you are going to apply?”

The attorney-general replied that it would be determined by the CBSE and the CISCE.

“We are happy to note that the government has taken the decision to cancel the Class XII board exams but we want that the objective criteria fixed for assessment of marks be placed before us,” Justice Khanwilkar said.

The court told Venugopal: “There’s apprehension over getting admission to higher courses and courses outside the country…. Please impress upon your client that this is an urgent issue on which a decision has to be taken. You can have a virtual meeting.”

The top court said it would go through the objective parameters for assessment of marks so that if anyone has objections, it can be dealt with.

The bench, however, refrained from passing directions on the plea of the petitioner, advocate Mamta Sharma, that all state education boards be asked to cancel this year’s Class X and XII exams.

The court said it would consider the plea at the next hearing.

“You should have patience and not rush things like this. You have only asked for cancellation of board exams by the CBSE and now you are saying state boards. You are asking for the heavens. First let the CBSE place on record the objective criteria and then we will see about other boards,” the court told Sharma.