The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea to direct the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (ICSE) to conduct a re-test for students who have failed their classes nine and 11 exams.
A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar dismissed the petition filed by Ojas Achyut Gupta, represented by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, to immediately “adopt, formulate and implement” norms similar to the one issued for school-level re-test in these two classes by the (CBSE) on May 13.
The court agreed with the ICSE that its regulations do not allow re-examination or awarding grace marks.
“The question of issuing directions to the contrary does not arise,” the court said.
The court said it cannot direct the ICSE to follow the norms specified by the CBSE.
“The respondent-Board (ICSE) is free and independent to adopt its own modalities for ensuring academic standards,” the order held.
“Suffice it to observe that at this distance of time, if any direction is issued to the respondent-Board it may give rise to more students similarly placed setting up their claim for similar indulgence. That may result in impacting the academic year which has already commenced from June 2020 and one semester whereof is almost completed,” the order explained.