9 students move SC against CBSE Compartment exams, seek extension of August 31 deadline for college admissions
At least 9 students petitioned the Supreme Court against CBSE Compartment examinations on Thursday. The plea has primarily sought extension of the August 31 deadline for admission in academic year 2020-2021 until the Central Board of Secondary Education declares results of the Compartment Examinations.
The petition has been filed before the apex court, in assistance with All India Students' Association (AISA), through Advocate-on-Record Manju Jetley and Advocates Sanjay Kumar Dubey, Tanvi Dubey and Sanpreet Singh Ajmani.
The plea has also prayed for quashing of the CBSE decision to hold the compartment exams at all amid the COVID-19 pandemic as it is a "violation of Right ot Equality" since CBSE students were exempted from regular board exams.
In the prayer, the petitioners have submitted that since most of the colleges close admissions by August 31, students who have to take the compartment exam (re-test due to non adequate marks in papers) will be left behind the 2020-2021 admission cycle.
"It is end of August and we don't have a deadline for conduct of compartment exams. Most colleges have closed admissions or announced deadlines which is on or before 31.08.2020. This position is contrary to any other year. Where will these students go? Which college will they apply for admission after result," AISA National General Secretary Sandeep Saurav asked as he spoke with India TV Digital.
"When a decision was taken by the CBSE to postpone the exams on March 18, 2020, with 162 cases and thereafter to cancel the exams in June 2020 with 4,73,105 number of cases. There is absolutely no way that the exams may be conducted in August 2020 with more than 3.04 million cases," advocate Tanvi Dubey, who rendered legal assistance to the students in approaching the apex court, told India TV Digital.
The petitioners also seek that the students giving these compartment exams be given an alternative mode of assessment. "Impugned decision of the C.B.S.E. is completely an after thought. It has failed to take into consideration the reasons why the C.B.S.E. exams were postponed in March 2020 and further cancelled in June 2020. It also fails to take into consideration an alternative innovative mechanism devised by the C.B.S.E. for the students who had failed in Class X and XII," it reads.
The plea states that usually, deadlines for college admissions are scheduled in such a way that students giving compartment exams are not adversely affected. However, for this year, the deadline remains August 31 in most cases, in which case such students will be left and thus "injustice" will be meted out to them.
