The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to declare the results of compartment exams as soon as possible and coordinate with the University Grants Commission (UGC) to enable around two lakh students passing out in these exams to apply in colleges in the current academic year. A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar, asked the UGC and the CBSE to take a joint decision on declaration of results and admissions in colleges for students giving compartment exams and posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday. During the hearing, advocate Apoorv Kurup appearing for the UGC, told the bench that cut off date for admission in colleges is most likely in October end and if CBSE declares the result of compartment exams before that, students will be able to take admissions. Senior advocate Vivek Tankha, appearing for a group of students, told the bench that the compartment exams are today and they finish on September 29. “If we give the exams but we can’t get the admissions in colleges, there will be no point,” he added. Tankha said that the CBSE should come out of the exam results soon and sought that the UGC should accommodate students, who have given compartment exams, in the academic calendar. He said that since two lakh students are appearing in the compartment exams, they should get the benefit of the admission process, otherwise what’s the point of taking these exams? The Bench, during the hearing, enquired from the counsel appearing for the UGC about the cut-off date for admission in the undergraduate courses. The advocate appearing for the UGC replied that the cut-off date will be most likely by end of October and added that the academic calendar is finalised. Justice Khanwilkar said if the CBSE declares results by end of October, then UGC can wrap up admissions by the first week of November. Counsel appearing for the CBSE apprised the bench that it will take three to four weeks to declare results and added that even regular students waiting for admissions. To this, Justice Khanwilkar said, “This is not a normal time. You have to make changes to accommodate students. Both of you (CBSE and UGC) coordinates in this way that you have a cut-off date for admissions in terms of the declaration of the result by CBSE. Take a final decision by Thursday. This is not a normal time. These are only two lakh students, they can be accommodated. The CBSE has to work in tandem with UGC and vice versa.” The top court was hearing a plea filed by a group of students who were placed in the compartment category, after the CBSE declared the result for the said classes, based on an alternate evaluation method, in July this year. The petitioners contended that it shall be impossible for the CBSE to safely conduct the compartment examination amid the pandemic and since the compartment exams were not conducted in July, students have been unable to take admissions in the universities. The plea sought an extension of the college admissions deadline due to delayed compartment exams and time to be taken for results.
