THE CENTRE on Monday told the Supreme Court that it will decide in the next two days whether or not to hold the Class XII board exams amid the pandemic. “The government will take a final decision within the next two days. We are hoping that your lordships will give us time till Thursday (June 3) so that we can come back with the final decision”, Attorney General K K Venugopal told a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari. Read | Announcement on CBSE Class 12 Board exam unlikely today The bench was hearing a plea seeking directions to cancel the Class XII exams of the CBSE and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) taking into account the difficulties posed by the pandemic. Adjourning the hearing, the bench, however, told the government that it should give tangible reasons if it chose to depart from last year’s policy. “You make the decision. You are entitled to it. If you are departing from the policy of last year, then you must give tangible reasons for it,” the bench told Venugopal. The court had last year approved the CBSE and CISCE schemes for cancelation of remaining board examinations scheduled between July 1 and July 15 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and given its nod to their formula for assessment of examinees. Allowing the SG’s request, the bench ordered: “list on Thursday as requested by the attorney general as the competent authority is examining all the aspects of the matter and is likely to take an in-principle decision, which will be placed before the court”. The plea has also sought directions for the devising of an “objective methodology” to declare the result of Class XII within a specific timerame.
