Conducting Offline Examinations Will Be Irrational, Unjust, And Unfair: CLASS XII Exams Cancellation

What Is The Case

• On behalf of a group of 521 students, the Youth Bar Association of India has petitioned the Supreme Court for intervention in a petition to cancel the Class XII CBSE and ICSE examinations.
• Advocate Mamta Sharma filed a PIL in which she requested that the Notification dated 14th, 16th, and 19th April 2021 issued by CBSE and Council for the Indian School Certificate Test be set aside only in respect of clauses relating to the postponement of the Class XII examination.
• The PIL will be heard today by a vacation bench consisting of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari (Monday, May 31st). While citing newspaper reports that the Centre and State Ministries have decided to physically conduct Board exams between July 15 and August 26 following a national consultation, the application claims that conducting the exams offline will be irrational, unjust, and unfair in the face of a medical disaster.

Details Of The Case

• Conducting an offline test, according to the applicant, would be a clear breach of the right to life and personal liberty protected by Article 21 of the Constitution, which includes the right to health.
• Furthermore, according to the application, such a move contradicts the government's own decision, which said that the exams for class Xth children were cancelled on April 14, 2021, due to mounting cases. As a result, any decision to administer the exam in an offline manner will fail to pass the proportionality and reasonableness test set forth in Article 14 of the Constitution.
• "When Class X examinations are cancelled due to the pandemic, there is no reason we can afford to take a chance and expose Class XII students to this massive and life-threatening health hazard.
• " According to the application, The application has said that the conduct of physical examination would not take into account the condition of the Covid positive pupils who will not be able to appear in the examination, calling the decision a "mindless service."
• Furthermore, no vaccine for children under the age of 18 has yet been implemented, and there is already concern about the third wave and the possibility that it would damage minors.
• It has also been noted that, because numerous schools have been turned into Covid care centres as well as immunisation centres, conducting exams in Covid hotspots poses a risk to the lives and safety of thousands of children. The applicant claims that the postponement of the Class XII examination has created a cloud of uncertainty in the minds of students and that a timely decision is required to protect the students' interests, as the students will lose opportunities to apply to foreign universities as a result of the postponement of the exams.

What do you think about the case?