Supreme Court stayed the order of Karnataka High Court that earlier upheld the decision of Karnataka State Education Board to conduct Board Examinations for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 on Monday, as reported by Bar and Bench.
With the intervention of SC, the board examinations will now not be held in state-run schools across the state.
A stay order was issued in response to an appeal contesting the High Court's decision on March 22, reported Bar and Bench.
The announcement of the exam results has been postponed by a bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal. The exams had previously resumed following orders from the Karnataka High Court last month.
"The State (of Karnataka) is bent on playing with students' futures and causing them and their parents, teachers and school management hardship. Impugned order (of the Karnataka High Court) prima facie does not seem to be in consonance with the RTE Act," the top court ordered today, as reported by Bar and Bench. SC further added that the order will stay until further order. According to Bar and Bench, SC further ordered that results declared by any school shall also not be taken into consideration for any purpose. Moreover, the results should be kept in cessation with the school and should not be communicated to the parents.
Previous order by Karnataka High Court
Notably, this is the second time that the KSEAB exam administration has been ordered to comply with a Supreme Court ruling, reported Bar and Bench.
A division bench of the Karnataka High Court dismissed petitions against the State's conduct, accepting its argument that the examinations could not be considered "Board Exams" in the traditional sense in the judgement under challenge dated March 22. As a result, it overturned a single-judge ruling from March 6 that had invalidated some notifications from 2023 that had cleared the way for the administration of these tests.
