XII exams: SC strikes down condition in CBSE policy

One-liner: The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a condition in a clause in the CBSE's evaluation policy of June last year which stated that marks obtained in the later exam will be considered as final for assessing class 12 students.

Option to candidate: A bench said the Central Board of Secondary Education shall provide an option to the candidate to accept the better of the two marks obtained in the subject for final declaration of results for the last academic year.

• The apex court was hearing a plea filed by some students who had appeared in the CBSE exams last year for improving their marks in class 12

Driving the news: The SC noted that the petitioners have a grievance that this condition has been inserted in departure of earlier ones where the better of the two marks by a candidate in a subject was to be considered for final declaration of results.

Bench contention: The bench, which disposed of the plea, said the policy was required to be adopted because of the challenging situation faced by students and this itself justifies making a provision which is more favourable to them.

• While hearing the matter last month, the apex court had said the CBSE should consider the problem of those students who had appeared in the exams last year for improving marks in class 12 but obtained less marks

Background: On June 17 last year, the top court had approved the assessment schemes of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and the CBSE, which had adopted the 30:30:40 formula for evaluation of marks for students of 12th standard based on results of class 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

• It had said that marks obtained by class 12 students in practical and internal assessment on an actual basis as uploaded by schools on the CBSE portal would be also considered in deciding the final results 

Source: PTI