In a recent judgment, the Delhi High Court underscored the importance of preventing schools from making mistakes while uploading students’ internal assessment marks on the CBSE website. The court warned against potential disorder and emphasized the complications that could arise if schools were allowed to correct errors through pleas. It stressed that such a scenario would burden CBSE with the independent verification of each case to ensure the accuracy of marks.
The court emphasized that if CBSE were to blindly entertain schools’ requests to mark corrections, it would put the board in a challenging position, requiring thorough independent verifications.
As per the court’s perspective, this would disrupt the usual assessment process and diminish the credibility of the examination system.
Addressing the petitioner’s plea for a reconsideration of internal assessment marks, the court cited CBSE circulars that prohibit mark revisions, emphasizing the broader public interest.
Justice C Hari Shankar expressed regret, recognizing the complexity of the situation and asserting that the ruling must be based on reason rather than sympathy.
The petitioner, a student from a CBSE-affiliated school in Oman, had sought an order to revise her social studies internal assessment marks for Class 10.
Despite the school’s notification to CBSE regarding the uploading error, the circulars were invoked to reject the request, deeming alterations impractical.
According to the court, while highlighting the petitioner’s plea, the CBSE won’t entertain such requests, and if such a practice is permitted then it will have to conduct independent verifications in each case to determine the actual marks awarded to the candidate.
Justice Shankar also expressed regret over the inevitability of making rulings devoid of sympathy in cases governed by procedural constraints.
The court acknowledged the fragile balance between individual grievances and maintaining the integrity of examination and assessment procedures.
