Students awaiting their Class 12 results may have to wait a little longer as the CBSE is likely to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court’s order to continue with the moderation policy this year.
Although sources from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) maintained that the results will be declared this week itself, much would depend on the apex court’s view on the special leave petition (SLP) that the Board will file.
The CBSE and the state boards decided last month to do away with the moderation policy — to add marks in case of, say, difficult questions. The high court directed the CBSE early this week to hold this decision for this academic year.
About half a dozen state boards have already declared results and students from these states remain in a limbo, given this confusion following the HC verdict.
The CBSE’s decision to appeal against the HC verdict came after a high-level meeting chaired by HRD minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday. The board decided to seek legal opinion on the issue following which it decided to go for an appeal.
 “Legal opinion was sought and it was decided that the board may challenge the order and results will be announced on basis of the decision,” a source said.
According to a senior HRD official, moderation has to be viewed at three different levels such as grace marks that are given to ensure a student is able to pass in case he or she is missing out by a few marks.
Secondly, moderation that is carried out owing to different difficulty levels in different sets and inflation or spiking of marks that is carried out by some boards in the garb of moderation.
“We are going to contest inflation of marks that is done as it is an unfair practice,” said a senior official.
The issue of six states that have already declared their results is also a matter of concern as the students of these boards are likely to suffer during admissions to undergraduate courses.
“All attempts are being made to ensure results are not delayed. But a number of states have already declared results without doing moderation so there is still confusion about the entire issue,” said a source.
When asked, Javadekar said the CBSE will take a call on this issue.
The CBSE results were expected between May 25 and May 27 as traditionally it is announced at this time of the year. However, as the exams were delayed due to state assembly elections, the CBSE maintained it will release the result by the end of the week.
A decision was taken by the CBSE along with 32 other boards to do away with the policy of moderation in April that results in inflation of marks and leads to high cut-offs in universities such as Delhi University.
