New Delhi: The Delhi High Court reprimanded the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday for its “anti-student attitude”. The high court said that it was “treating students as enemies” by taking the matters to the Supreme Court in certain cases, reported news agency PTI.
“We don’t like this anti-student attitude of the CBSE. You are dragging students all the way to the Supreme Court. Should they be studying or going to court? We should start imposing costs on the CBSE. They are treating students as enemies,” a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan observed.
The bench was hearing a plea moved by the board challenging a single judge order, which said the CBSE’s reassessment scheme for students whose board exams got cancelled due to COVID-19 would apply to improvement candidates also. “What is the harm in it?” the bench asked.
On August 14, the single-judge bench had held that the scheme approved by the Supreme Court for assessing students due to cancellation of the CBSE exams in light of COVID-19 will also apply to students, who appeared for improvement examinations as they are equal victims of the pandemic.
“There is no earthshaking emergency for you to come to court now all guns blazing,” the bench rapped CBSE.
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The August 14 order was delivered following a plea by a student who appeared in the CBSE class XII exams in February-March last year and got 95.25 per cent.
To further improve his score, the student dropped one year to reappear in Accountancy, English Core, Economics and Business Studies for an improvement examination in 2020.
While other exams were held according to schedule, the Business Studies exam scheduled for March 24, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The student, Sanyam Gupta, sought that his improvement examinations result ought to be declared and in respect of the cancelled paper of Business Studies. He also said that he should be treated at par with the regular students for whom the top court approved an assessment scheme. The high court ordered the CBSE to issue a corrected marksheet to the student.
After implementing the August 14 order and issuing a corrected marksheet to Gupta who, thereafter, got admitted to a Delhi University college on the basis of the same, the single judge’s decision has now been challenged by the CBSE.
Taking serious note of the facts and circumstances, the bench said, “The impugned order has been implemented. The child has taken admission. Why should we upset the applecart now?” Following the CBSE counsel’s argument that the improvement candidates were getting more chances under the reassessment scheme as compared to regular students, the bench said it should have brought this to the apex court’s notice when the scheme was being approved.
The high court, however, issued a notice to the student seeking his reply to the CBSE’s plea. “We will put you to an exam now,” the bench told the CBSE and listed the matter for further hearing on February 5, 2021.