The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a CBSE rule that said the marks students obtained in their Class XII “improvement exams” would be final even if they had previously secured higher scores in the regular board exam.

The bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and C.T. Ravi Kumar chided the national school board for the policy and directed that the students be allowed to choose the “better of the two marks”.

“We have no hesitation in striking out the policy where marks obtained in the later examination will be considered final. We find no justification in the rule frame. We direct the CBSE to provide the option to the candidate to choose better of the two marks obtained for the evaluation of results,” Justice Khanwilkar said.

The official order had not been uploaded till late Friday night. A batch of Class XII CBSE students had petitioned the court.

The petitioners said the CBSE had initially announced that the higher score — whether in the regular exam or the improvement exam — would be considered final, and then reneged on the assurance.

The students told the apex court that Class XII students who had been declared “pass” by the CBSE under its assessment policy dated June 17, 2021, and had taken the offline exams held in August-September to improve their scores, should not be declared “fail” if they were unsuccessful in the improvement exams.

“Petitioners herein have either been declared fail or awarded less marks in the improvement examination. Petitioner students are under an apprehension that their original result declared by the CBSE in which they were declared pass will be cancelled, on the basis of the following Clause 28 of Respondent no. 1 Evaluation Policy dated 17.06.2021,” the petition said.

According to Clause 28, students dissatisfied with the original assessment would have the chance to take an improvement exam whenever conditions became conducive for holding offline exams. “As per this policy, marks scored in later examination will be considered final,” it said.

The petitioners said this contradicted a circular and a media release the CBSE had issued.

They said that in a circular dated March 16, 2021, the CBSE had said that for students appearing in the improvement exams, the “better of the two marks obtained in the subject will be considered for final declaration of results”.

A CBSE media release, dated September 29, said 34,317 students had appeared in the offline exams for the purpose of improving their scores. The students said that Clause 3 of the release stated: “In case of improvement both mark sheets are valid. You can use either one.”

The students, Sukriti and others, were represented by advocate Mamata Sharma.