The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the CBSE to process, without creating impediments, the applications for correction or change in name or other particulars in certificates issued by the board, saying it was intrinsic to identity.

The top court ordered the Central Board of Secondary Education to take immediate steps to amend its relevant by-laws to incorporate a mechanism for recording corrections or changes in certificates that have already been issued or are to be issued.

It held that the CBSE cannot impose the precondition of applying for correction consistent with the school records only before publication of results as such a rider will be “unreasonable” and “excessive”.

A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, B.R. Gavai and Krishna Murari said there was no reason for the CBSE to turn down such requests or attach any precondition except a reasonable period of limitation and keeping in mind the time frame for which the board had to maintain its records under the regulations.

“…We direct the CBSE to process the applications for correction or change, as the case may be, in the certificate issued by it in the respective cases under consideration,” the bench said, while disposing of a batch of 22 petitions led by a student, Jigya Yadav, related to corrections or changes in particulars of students in certificates.

The court said the board can insist that the students comply with other conditions, such as filing a sworn affidavit making necessary declarations and indemnifying the CBSE from any claim.

The bench said the CBSE would be justified in insisting for surrender or return of the original certificate or the duplicate original certificate issued by it for replacing it with the fresh certificate to be handed out after carrying out necessary corrections with captions and annotations against the changes carried out and the date of such corrections.

“It may retain the original entries as it is except in respect of correction of name effected in exercise of the right to be forgotten. The fresh certificate may also contain the disclaimer that the CBSE cannot be held responsible for the genuineness of the school records produced by the incumbent in support of the request to record corrections in the original CBSE certificate,” the court said.

The bench, however, said that if the request for recording a change was based on altered school records after the publication of results and the issue of certificate by the CBSE, the candidate would be entitled to apply for recording such a change within the reasonable limitation period prescribed by the CBSE.

“In this situation, the candidate cannot claim that she had no knowledge about the change recorded in the school records because such a change would occur obviously at her instance. If she makes such application for correction of the school records, she is expected to apply to the CBSE immediately after the school records are modified and which ought to be done within a reasonable time,” the court said.

Dealing with the request for “change” of particulars in certificates, the bench said this could be done in two scenarios — on the basis of public documents like birth certificate, Aadhaar card/voter card and when the request for change is due to the acquired name by choice at a later date.

The court said that in the first category, such public documents cannot be ignored by the CBSE. In the second scenario, the request may be entertained after insisting on prior permission or declaration by a court and publication in the Official Gazette.