Paper leak; SC to hear pleas against CBSE's decision to re-conduct exams

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a batch of petitions challenging the CBSE's decision to re-conduct Mathematics and the Economics examination for Class 10 and 12 respectively after the question papers were allegedly leaked.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said since many petitions have been filed on the same issue, it would list them all for hearing on April 4.

Separately, the Delhi High Court today asked the CBSE about its plans, if any, to re-conduct the class 10 Maths test.

The counsel, representing Kerala-based 15-year-old Rohan Mathew, sought urgent hearing of the plea by the top court challenging the decision to re-conduct the examination.

Besides seeking an independent probe into the leak, the student has also sought a direction to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to declare the results on the basis of the examinations already conducted.

The CBSE, on March 30, had announced that it would re-conduct the examination for Economics for Class 12 throughout the country on April 25.

The Board also said that a fresh test for Class 10 Mathematics paper may be held only in Delhi, NCR and Haryana.

Mathew and two others have moved the top court seeking quashing of the CBSE's decision to re-conduct the Class 10 Mathematics examination on several grounds including violation of their fundamental rights.

Earlier, another plea was filed in the apex court by one Reepak Kansal, a resident of Shakarpur here, challenging the decision of the CBSE to cancel and re-conduct examinations of Economics of Class 12 and Mathematics paper of Class 10 over suspicion of alleged question paper leak.

"It is to be noted that this year, 16,38,428 students are appearing for the Class 10 and 11,86,306 students for Class 12 in the CBSE examinations.

"And therefore, to penalise the student community for an incident which is under investigation and without completion of that investigation/enquiry and issuing a notice on March 28, 2018 (for re-exams), affects the fundamental rights of students which is arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional," the plea has said.

It alleged that reports about the question paper leakage was circulated on social media for several hours before the papers started. "Despite information and complaints, the CBSE denied any leak of question papers and urged students and parents to not to panic," the plea submitted.

It also sought a direction to the board to declare the results based on the exam which was already conducted.

The petition, which sought directions to the Centre and the CBSE, said that due to the inaction or wrong actions of the CBSE officials, the fundamental rights of students, falling in the category of re-examination, has been violated as they would not have proper time and opportunity to appear in their respective competitive examinations.