- The court allowed the appeals filed by the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association that challenged the interim order passed by the division bench of the High Court on March 7, 2024
The Supreme Court on March 12, 2024 set aside a two-bench interim order of Karnataka High Court’s putting the Karnataka government’s decision to conduct board exams for Classes 5, 8 and 9 for the State board syllabus on hold. The apex court set aside the order and has referred the case to a division bench. As a result, the board exams have been postponed by the government.
The court allowed the appeals filed by the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association that challenged the interim order passed by the division bench of the High Court on March 7, staying a single bench judgment that quashed the government’s decision to hold board exams for classes 5, 8, 9 and 11.
Meanwhile, the apex court noted that the board exam for class 11 has already been over and those for classes 5, 8, 9 have already commenced, which would conclude on March 18. The Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board had introduced a ‘centralized annual examination’ for classes 5 and 8 in the previous academic year, while the government introduced the same for class 9 and first Pre-university course (PUC) through a notification in September 2023.
According to the notification, no student shall be detained in case he/she fails. In such a situation, the school has been directed to inform only the student and the student’s parents about the results. However, for the first PUC examination, the board would be conducting a supplementary examination at the college level, if a student fails to get the passing mark. However, the private schools association argued that RTE mandates that continuous and comprehensive evaluation must be conducted at the school level for classes 5, 8 and 9 and it should not be a board exam.
