NEW DELHI: The High Court on Friday pulled up the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for arbitrariness and lapse on its part in keeping class XII students in the dark and not informing them in advance about the change in weightage formula for the preparation of the final result.
While the CBSE had issued a circular on July 5, 2021, that an equal weightage of 50-50 per cent will be given to the Term-I and Term-II (theory) exams of class XII in the academic year 2021-22, it was recommended on July 21, a day prior to the declaration of results, that the weightage formula should be 30-70 per cent.
The HC said there are glaring lapses and a lackadaisical approach adopted by the board and this tantamounts to changing the rules of race after the race has ended and as such is outrageously arbitrary.The HC said there was nothing on record to suggest that any such order had been passed by the chairperson/competent authority of CBSE accepting, enforcing, and notifying the recommendation.
“Accordingly, merely on the basis of the recommendation of the committee, the competent authority decided to prepare the final result for class XII and class X by giving the weightage to Term-I at 30 per cent and Term-II at 70 per cent. In a matter of hours, the result of lakhs of students was prepared and published the very next day, that is, on July 22, 2022,” Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said.
The judgement said the factum of the recommendation and its acceptance was kept a secret from the public and students at large, until the fag end and the students were informed about it only on the day the results were declared.
“This clearly shows the arbitrariness and lapse on the part of the board to keep the students in the dark about the weightage formula adopted for the preparation of the final result,’ the judge said.
The court’s judgement came while deciding a plea by a student, who assailed her class XII result declared and sought to declare her result in terms of the July 2021 circular which mandated equal weightage of the theory papers.
The court allowed the prayer directing the board to declare the result of the petitioner in terms of the July 2021 circular, providing for the Special Scheme of Assessment which mandates equal weightage to theory papers while computing the result.
Close call
CBSE’s July 5, 2021 decision of an equal weightage of 50-50% to be given to Term-I and Term-II of class XII exams was changed to 30-70% a day prior to the declaration of results on July 22