The Central Board of Secondary Education has implemented a new assessment policy for private Class XII candidates whose board examinations were cancelled in seven Gulf nations due to regional conflict, the Central government informed the Supreme Court on Monday.
Under the newly notified guidelines, marks for cancelled subjects will be calculated by combining 40 percent of a candidate’s theory marks from their Class X board exams with 60 percent of their theory scores from their last attempted Class XII board exams.
The policy, which was officially notified on June 21, aims to address the disruption of Class XII examinations across West Asian countries—including Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—following conflict in the region.
Addressing Assessment Gaps For Private Candidates
Appearing before a bench of Justices S V N Bhatti and Vipul M Pancholi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre and the CBSE, explained that a fresh evaluation framework was necessary to resolve a unique challenge faced by private candidates.
While regular school students could be graded using internal academic records, private candidates lacked records of quarterly, half-yearly, or pre-board examinations. These records formed the basis of the board’s original March 27 evaluation scheme, leaving private candidates without a clear assessment pathway.
Supreme Court Disposes Individual Petition
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by Pransu Jigarkumar Patel, a private candidate residing in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Patel had challenged the CBSE’s failure to declare his improvement exam results, which had been put on hold as “Result Later.” He argued that the omission threatened his higher education opportunities.
Patel had appeared for his Physics and Chemistry papers, which were graded on actual marks, but his examinations for Mathematics, English, and Computer Science were cancelled.
Mehta informed the bench that Patel’s results have now been declared under the new formula, yielding higher marks than his past performance. The board has emailed the results to him and will update his records on the DigiLocker platform. The policy also allows any student dissatisfied with their calculated marks to sit for the next scheduled regular board examinations.
The petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Vineet Jindal, acknowledged the declaration of the results but requested the court to protect Patel’s right to obtain answer sheets and seek re-evaluation.
The bench declined the request, noting that the petition did not contain those specific prayers and clarifying that the court cannot grant unrequested relief. The court subsequently recorded the Solicitor General’s statements and disposed of the petition, granting the candidate liberty to seek legal recourse for any remaining grievances.
