Following a Supreme Court directive, the Karnataka government has decided not to declare board examination results for classes 8, 9, and 10 until further orders.
Supreme Court’s Verdict
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and SC Sharma called the conduct of half-yearly board exams for class 10th an “ego issue” and remarked that such exams “cannot happen”. The Court also noted that no other state in the country holds half-yearly board exams and emphasised that there is only a board exam.
“Why are you harassing the students? You are the state. You should not behave like this. Don’t make it an ego issue. If you are really concerned about the welfare of students, then please open good schools. Don’t throttle them,” the bench told senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, representing the Karnataka government.
The Karnataka government argued that the exams were necessary due to declining student marks, and the court granted them time to file an affidavit explaining their position.
The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools against the March 22, judgement of the Karnataka High Court. The high court’s division bench had permitted the state government to conduct the board exams for different classes for the academic year 2023-24, overruling the March 6 order of a single judge’s bench.
