CBSE paper leak: At the very outset, the Supreme Court bench of Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao, before which the pleas came up, made it clear that it did not intend to entertain them.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a batch of petitions raising questions over the CBSE paper leak, saying it was not the court’s jurisdiction to go into it. At the very outset, a bench of Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao, before which the pleas came up, made it clear that it did not intend to entertain them. But as the petitioners put forth their grievances, the bench heard them briefly and said, “We don’t consider it the part of the jurisdiction of the court to examine which paper is leaked.”
To a petitioner who said that the court should evaluate the impact of the leak, Justice Bobde asked: “In a writ petition, we will evaluate the impact of leak?” He added, “This has to be discretion of the authority.”
To another petitioner who said the CBSE was giving contradictory reports on the leaks, Justice Rao said, “What is your interest?… You are studying here (Delhi), you want a direction for whole country?… You give your exams.”
Five petitions had been filed in the Supreme Court raising the paper leak issue and questioning the retest ordered by the CBSE.
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One of the petitioners, a Class X student from Kerala who challenged the move to conduct retest of the maths paper in Delhi-NCR and Haryana, said the Board’s decision was based on “unconfirmed apprehension that the question paper has been leaked in Delhi prior to said examination”.
The plea was filed on March 31 after the Board decided to conduct a retest of the Class XII economics paper across the country, and the Class X maths paper in Delhi-NCR and Haryana. On Tuesday, the Board decided against holding the maths retest.
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Another petitioner sought a direction to the CBSE not to hold the re-exam of the economics paper, and said that if at all the retest was held, it should be made optional for students. However, the court declined to grant this. Yet another petition questioned the decision to restrict the maths re-exam to Delhi-NCR and Haryana and to hold it in July. The petition had sought setting aside the CBSE decision to hold the retest.