The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Karnataka High Court order of March 22 which allowed board examinations to be conducted for Classes 5, 8, 9 and 11 in schools affiliated with the State Board.
A Bench headed by Justice Bela Trivedi directed the State to keep in abeyance and not communicate or circulate the results of the examinations at any cost either to the students or parents. The petitioners had submitted that the Karnataka State Quality Assessment and Accreditation Council, following the High Court order on March 22, had issued a direction on April 4 to schools to publish the examination results on April 8.
“The results declared by any school pursuant to the stated order shall be kept in abeyance, not be taken into consideration for any purpose whatsoever and nor it shall be communicated to the parents if not communicated so far,” the Bench, also comprising Justice Pankaj Mittal, said.
The Bench accused the State of trying to create confusion among parents and children. It said the State’s push for board examinations and even the March 22 order of the High Court were not in tune with the Right to Education Act.
‘Agony and hardship’
“The State seems to be bent on playing with the future of the students and has caused a lot of physical and mental agony and hardship to students, parents and their teachers as also to school managements,” the court remarked.
The top court observed that the proposed board examinations were prima facie in the teeth of Sections 2(f), 16 and 30 of the Right to Education Act, which prohibited the exposure of children to the rigours of board examinations till they finish elementary education.
The court is hearing petitions filed by the Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association and the Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools challenging the validity of the State notifications insisting on board examinations.
The petitioners, represented by advocates K.V. Dhananjay, A. Velan, Sudharsan Suresh, Anirudh Kulkarni, Sainath D.M., Ananya Krishna and Dheeraj S.J., had moved the Supreme Court.
The top court issued notice to the State of Karnataka and listed the case on April 23.
The Supreme Court had earlier, on March 12, intervened against the conduct of board examinations for these classes in Karnataka.
Putting on hold an interim order of a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court permitting the State to hold the board examinations, the Supreme Court had then observed that the High Court Division Bench ought not to have allowed the conduct of board examination through an interim order. That too, after two Single Benches of the same High Court had already quashed similar notifications or circulars.
The petitioners had contended that the State, by insisting on exposing younger children to the board, was risking the repeat of the tragedies of March 2023.
“Karnataka, unfortunately, witnessed a few child suicide cases in the month of March, 2023. There was nothing that the helpless parents could do. The children were taking the board exams that the government had just introduced for children studying in classes 5 and 8,” the petitioners had submitted.
