Supreme Court stays Karnataka Board Exam results for classes 5, 8, 9, 11

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the operation of a High Court order that had upheld the conduct of "Board Examinations" for classes 5,8, 9 and 11 of schools affiliated to the Karnataka State Education Board (KSEAB) [Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association Karnataka vs State of Karnataka and ors]..A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal has stayed the declaration of any results of these exams, which had earlier resumed on the Karnataka High Court's directions last month. .The stay order was passed on an appeal challenging the High Court's March 22 judgment in the matter.."It appears that the respondent – State is anyhow bent upon playing with the future of the students and cause mental agony and physical hardships to the students, their parents, their teachers, as also to the School Managements ... The impugned order passed by the Division Bench also prima facie does not appear to be in consonance with the provisions contained in the RTE Act and with the settled tenets of interpretation of statutes.""In the above circumstances, notice be issued to the respondents returnable on 23.04.2024 ... operation and implementation of the impugned order ... stayed till further orders ... The results declared by any School ... shall be kept in abeyance and shall not be taken into consideration for any purpose whatsoever, nor shall they be communicated to the parents", the top court ordered today.The case will be taken up next on April 23..In the March 22 judgment under challenge, a division bench of the Karnataka High Court had accepted the State's contention that the examinations cannot be viewed as "Board Exams" in the conventional sense and dismissed petitions challenging its conduct.It, thus, set aside a March 6 single-judge decision which had struck down certain notifications passed in 2023, which had paved the way for the conduct of these exams..Notably, this is the second time that the Supreme Court has passed an order against the conduct of the KSEAB exams. The first order was passed on March 12, soon after the High Court single-judge's order was passed and stayed by a division bench of the High Court..Supreme Court halts Board Examination in Karnataka for classes 5, 8, 9, 11.The division bench of the High Court later upheld the State's decision to conduct the exams and ordered that the exams resume.The High Court bench of Justices K Somashekar and Rajesh Rai K opined that there was nothing to show that the KSEAB exams would entail additional pressure on a student, since the only distinguishing feature is that the question papers will be set by the KSEAB.To consider an exam a "Board Exam", the primary requirement is that the exam results would be publicly displayed, that the paper would be graded by an external evaluator and that a student may be detained if they fail the exam, the Court added.The High Court went on to observe that these aspects were missing when it came to the KSEAB exams. Therefore, it concluded that the KSEAB exams are not "Board Exams" in the conventional sense. This was one of the reasons why the Court concluded that there was no bar under the Right to Education Act (RTE Act) when it came to the conduct of these exams. .A fresh appeal was then filed before the Supreme Court which has now stayed the results of the exams on a prima facie view that the High Court's final decision appears to be wrong."This is the classic instance whereby none else than the State Government of Karnataka has sought to create a havoc and great distress not only amongst the students and their parents, but also amongst the teachers and the School Managements in the State of Karnataka", the present bench observed. at the outset.Advocates KV Dhananjay, A Velan, Ananya Krishna, Sainath DM, and Dheeraj SJ represented the appellants before the top court..[Read order]