The Delhi High Court asked the Central Board of Secondary Education on Monday about its plans, if any, to re-conduct the Class 10 Maths test the question papers for which had been leaked recently.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar sought information on possible re-examination for the Class 10 Maths paper after CBSE said it was still ascertaining the extent of the leak before announcing the date for the fresh test.
The court put the query to the secondary and higher secondary education regulator while issuing notices to the CBSE and the Centre seeking their stands on a plea for a court-monitored probe into the recent leaks of the Maths and Economics question papers of Class 10 and 12, respectively.
During the brief hearing, the bench asked the CBSE as to how could it wait till July to re-conduct the test and keep the students on “tenterhooks” till then.
The court observed that it would not only waste an academic year of the students, but would also be akin to keeping “a sword hanging over their heads.”
The CBSE said no decision has been taken regarding Class 10 Maths re-examination as it was ascertaining if the leak was pan-India or confined to Delhi and Haryana alone.
The court subsequently asked the CBSE to take a decision on the issue and inform it by April 16, saying that even Class 10 is crucial for the students as they decide on the basis of their results what streams of studies to take up for Classes 11 and 12.
The CBSE has already decided to re-conduct the Class 12 Economics examination on April 25.
The PIL was mentioned on Monday before the bench which had agreed to hear it.
The petition by NGO Social Jurist has sought that the Class 10 Maths exam be held in April, instead of in July as proposed by the authorities.
The petition by advocate Ashok Agarwal has also prayed for a direction to the CBSE to award liberals marks to the students in the Maths and Economics re-examinations.