Plea in SC seeks cancellation of examinations by National Institute of Open Schooling

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in Supreme Court seeking cancellation of all examinations and projects for students enrolled in National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

New Delhi A plea has been filed in the Supreme court seeking directions to the government and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to cancel board examination, tests or any assignments like the CBSE, ICSE and other colleges have done.

It seeks to declare marks immediately as per the internal assessment and keeping the admissions in colleges open until the NIOS students submit their results.

Filed by the father of a student enrolled with NIOS, the petition informs the court of the Institute's decision to postpone, not cancel, Secondary and Senior Secondary Board examinations on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was notified on June 30.

There are 5-6 lakh students enrolled with NIOS, informs the petitioner, and their lives will be adversely affected due to the action/inaction of the authorities, argues the plea. Invoking Fundamental Rights of the aggrieved, it is reiterated that "students, for no fault of theirs, may stand to lose one year as they will not be able to obtain admission to further studies after school unlike others".

The petitioner, additionally claims to have made representations before the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry as well as the NIOS but has not received a response.

The advocate said that declaration of results by CBSE and ICSE before NIOS will cause discrimination among students as the NIOS students won't be able to apply for higher exams at the time when ICSE and CBSE students will be able to.

The top court has already passed orders for ICSE and CBSE and new guidelines have also been issued by HRD ministry. The petitioner contends that not pointing out about NIOS students during the hearing was a failure of MHRD and NIOS.