The petition seeking cancellation of the Class XII Board examination was heard in the Supreme Court on Friday (May 28). The Supreme Court bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari asked the petitioner Mamta Sharma to serve the advance copy of the petition to CBSE and ICSE. The next hearing will be on Monday (May 31).

SC bench has said to petitioner counsel to be optimistic. “Maybe there will a resolution in your favor. Serve the other side first, so another side is represented,” says the bench.

Advocate Mamta Sharma had filed the plea seeking directions to the Centre, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) to cancel the CBSE and ICSE Class 12 examinations.

The Supreme Court has told the petitioner that on June 1, a final decision will be taken by the government on the Class XII board examinations. It is possible that the decision of the government is in your favor.

The petition filed by advocate Mamta Sharma asked the court to devise an objective methodology to declare the result of class XII within a specific time frame.

The plea stated that for the innocent students of class XII, “step-motherly, arbitrary, inhuman directions” have been issued to postpone their final examination for an unspecified duration.

“In view of the unprecedented health emergency and rising numbers of the COVID-19 cases in the country, the conduct of examination, either offline or online or blended in upcoming weeks is not possible, and delay in the examination will cause irreparable loss to the students as time is the essence in taking admission in higher education courses in foreign universities,” the plea said.

It added that delay in declaration of result will ultimately hamper one semester of the aspiring students as admission cannot be confirmed until the result of Class XII is declared.