CBSE Class 12 exams 2021: SC revokes board’s policy over improvement marks; Check details

The Supreme Court revoked a particular condition specified in CBSE's evaluation policy of June last year, which stated that marks scored in the last examination would be seen as final for assessing class 12 students. A bench of justices led by A M Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar said the CBSE shall offer an option to the students so that they can choose the better of the two marks obtained in the subject for the final declaration of their results for the last academic year.

This decision came after a few students who appeared in the examination last year submitted a plea before the apex court. The SC noted that a grievance had been made about the provision in clause 28 of the June 17, 2021 policy.

"Consequently, we have no hesitation in doing away with the condition specified in clause 28 that, in accordance with the policy, the marks obtained in the subsequent examination shall be treated as final," the bench said.

The top court maintained that this policy had to be adopted because of the challenging situation faced by the students, and the removal of the old provision would be more favorable for them. However, CBSE did not provide any justification for its evaluation policy. Earlier, last month, the apex court said that the board must understand the problems of the students who appeared in the CBSE Class 12 exam last year to improve their marks but got lesser marks as this could affect their admission. 

The court said students who want to take admission should not face any problems. A petition was filed by 11 students who were declared passed by the Board in the original results on the basis of the 30:30:40 evaluation policy and were then asked to appear on the improvement examination. The plea filed by advocate Ravi Prakash has asked the authorities to intervene to maintain the original result of the petitioners instead of the improvement examination result. Earlier on June 17, the Apex Court had approved CBSE's evaluation schemes, which consist of a 30:30:40 formula for the evaluation of marks for class 12 students on the basis of marks scored in the final examinations of classes 10, 11, and 12 respectively. Earlier, CBSE had said it would compute class 12 students' theories based on 30 percent of marks from the class 10 board, 30 percent from class 11, and 40 percent of marks would be taken from the unit, mid-term, and pre-board tests in class 12.

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