The Centre on Tuesday assured the Supreme Court that a final decision on postponement of Class X and XII exams of CBSE would be taken by Wednesday evening, amid concerns among parents over conducting the tests during the Covid pandemic.

CBSE is to conduct the pending Class X and XII tests from July 1 across the country. The decision has raised hackles of parents, who fear their children might be infected by the coronavirus if they step out to write the papers.

The number of Covid cases in the country touched 4.4 lakh on Tuesday.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for CBSE, told a bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar that the “decision-making process and discussions” on the exams were at “an advanced stage” and a “decision would be taken by tomorrow evening”.

Hence, he urged the court to adjourn the hearing till Thursday, so the government could communicate its final decision to the court during the next hearing.

Appearing for the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which conducts the ISC (Class XII) and ICSE (Class X) exams, senior counsel Jaideep Gupta submitted that it might broadly follow the government’s decision on CBSE.

Mehta told the court the government could not compel CISCE to be bound by its decision on exams as it was an autonomous body. The council, he said, has “to voluntarily bind itself” to any decision on CBSE.

The court said the council was at liberty to take an “informed decision” on the issue.

Mehta said “the government understands the anxiety of students and parents”.

The bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna, was hearing a batch of petitions filed by students and parents seeking quashing of CBSE’s notification on resumption of Class X and Class XII exams on July 1. Some ICSE students, too, wanted postponement of the exams.

Parents aver that holding the exams now might expose the students to the threat of contracting Covid-19.

Advocate Rishi Malhotra, appearing for some petitioners, insisted that the matter be taken up on Thursday as students and parents were anxious about the outcome.

Around 50 papers in Class X and XII exams are pending as CBSE had suspended the tests in March because of the Covid outbreak.

Later, it declared that tests in 29 main papers would be held in July.

CBSE is supposed to hold exams for six papers of Class X in North-East Delhi, which witnessed communal violence.