A PIL has been filed in the Apex court, using Article 32 of the Indian Constitution, on 5 July which demands the cancellation of all postponed exams under the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Unlike CBSE and ICSE, which earlier cancelled their pending board exams of class X & XI in wake of the pandemic, NOIS announced on June 30, to postpone rather than cancel the exams for Secondary and Senior Secondary Board examination. The Plea also seeks an immediate declaration of the results so that the students can get promoted for the higher studies.
The petitioner who is also a practising advocate in Ahmedabad and the father of the student enrolled with NIOS wrote that the decision to not cancel the examination was “bad and harsh” as it would “deprive students of securing admission in higher education because of delay in declaration of results”. The petition also points out the difficulty faced by the students to appear for board examinations along with the ignorance of the current pandemic that this decision of NOIS entails.
It is also stated that the petitioner made several requests to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and NOIS to look into the matter and he never got any response from their end. He additionally claimed to have written a letter to Chief Justice of India and his companion judges addressing the same demands but the fate was no different. It also argues that after the CBSE and ICSE cancelled their exams, the NOIS authorities should have followed the same and mustn’t have postponed the exams but cancelled them as it would affect 5-6 lakh students.
Giving examples of top universities like Harvard and Yale that have removed the prerequisite of SAT and ACT scores for next year admissions, the petition criticized the institute’s decision as “ex-facie illegal, Arbitrary, malicious and mala fide to say the least”. It also averred that the decision is “jeopardizing the life, well being and the very existence of the NIOS students”.
Image Source – Live Law
