Karnataka government allowed to conduct board exam for classes 5, 8 and 9 as per schedule from March 11

High Court of Karnataka allows State government to conduct board exams for classes 5, 8, and 9, starting March 11.

A division bench of the High Court of Karnataka on March 7 gave green signal to the State government to conduct board exams for the summative assessment of students of classes 5,8 and 9 as per the schedule, beginning from March 11.

The bench comprising Justice K. Somashekar and Justice Rajesh Rai K passed the interim order by staying the March 6 judgment of a single judge. The bench passed the order on an appeal filed by the State government questioning the correctness of the single judge’s verdict.

The single judge had quashed the State government’s decision to hold board exams for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 from the academic year 2023-24 while declaring that said decision was taken without following the due process of law as prescribed under the provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983. Though the single judge had also quashed decision of the Government to hold annual exam for class 11 through the KSEAB, the exams for the present academic year was already concluded on February 28.

The scheme of holding board exams, the single judge had said, was taken without framing the rules under Sections 22 and 145 of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, which mandates that the government will have to frame rules for the implementation of the examination system besides seeking views from stakeholders prior to finalising such rules.

“When the government intends to bring changes to the examination system affecting such a large number of students, it would be desirable as well as mandatory to follow the democratic procedure stipulated,” the single judge had observed.

The single judge had said that drastic change in the examination system that would affect substantially a large number of students could not have been introduced without adhering to the prescribed norms as per the law.

However, the Government, in its appeal has contended that the changed scheme of assessment/exams in no way contemplates an overhaul of the examination system, but merely seeks to bring about academic discipline and uniformity in the State’s education system by requiring a single component of the overall assessment to be conducted by the KSEAB.