No student will be debarred from Class X exam, SC told

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, December 15

None of the Kendriya Vidyalaya students studying in classes 6 to 8 will be debarred from appearing for the 10th examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for not completing the compulsory third language course, the Supreme Court was assured today.

The KVs filed an affidavit in the SC stating that the CBSE had agreed to grant this exemption as these students would be unable to complete the three-year course in classes 6-8 in view of the mid-session replacement of German with Sanskrit as the third language this year.

The SC had asked the government last week to allay the apprehensions of KV students that CBSE might not allow them to appear for the Tenth Board unless they cleared the mandatory three-year third language course. A Bench comprising Justices AR Dave and Kurian Joseph is hearing a batch of petitions filed by students’ parents questioning the logic behind the reintroduction of Sanskrit at this juncture.

The Bench would consider the KVs’ assurance tomorrow when the petitions are listed for next hearing. Earlier, the government had told the court that there would be no Sanskrit examination in KVs this year in order to avoid undue burden on students of classes 6-8.

The petitioners had contended that the government order doing away with the examination had created “chaos” as the students would be unable to meet the CBSE’s three-year eligibility condition for taking the 10th exam.

HRD Ministry decided to re-introduce Sanskrit in KVs as the three-year contract with Germany for teaching German had expired. Further, the contract was illegal in the first place as the Constitution allowed only teaching of any of the notified Indian languages, it said.