The Delhi High Court on Monday pulled up the Central Board of Secondary Education for issuing an admit card to a Class 10 student and then barring her from entering the examination hall for not uploading her domicile certificate on the CBSE website. The student, a 'private girl candidate', had uploaded her application for appearing in the Class 10 board exams on the CBSE website on October 3, 2023, but could not upload her domicile certificate as she did not have it with her at the time. On January 31, she submitted her domicile certificate with the board and was issued an admit card on February 15, based on which she had appeared for her first paper. However, she was stopped at the entrance of the exam hall on Monday morning and was not allowed to take her second paper. Expressing its displeasure at the incident, the single judge bench of Justice C Hari Shankar said, "This is completely unacceptable. The CBSE is expected to be vigilant regarding the entitlement of the students to appear in the examination. After issuing the admit card, stopping the student from entering the examination hall is unthinkable. The CBSE has no right, whatsoever, to do so. It is inhuman to first issue an admit card to a student, and when the student appears for the examination, make her stand outside the Examination Hall. The mother of the petitioner who is present in Court is in tears, but that is quite another matter". The bench then directed that the student would be entitled to undertake the exam and would also be granted an extension of time for completing the paper to compensate for the time for which she had to wait outside the exam hall. "It is further made clear that if any other candidate that has been thus held up outside the Examination Hall for want of uploading the domicile certificate in time, all such students will be entitled to enter the Examination Hall and undertake the examination with the extension of time,” the bench said. The court said the permission to undertake the exam shall be extended to the remaining Class 10 board exams. The court also issued notice to the CBSE in the student's writ petition asking the board to show cause why 'rule nisi' be not issued. A rule nisi is a court order which becomes final unless it is shown why it should be changed. The matter is now listed on April 1.
