CBSE Paper leak scam is one of the hottest topics going about in our country and the matter has now onnce again reached before the Supreme Court, as second PIL praying that re-examination may be conducted of all papers for Class 12th within four weeks and not only of Economics, has been filed before the Apex court.
The PIL, has been instituted by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, contending, “Considering that there is a strong possibility of other question papers of Class 10th and 12th also leaked and circulated online, apart from the question papers of Economics for Class 12th and Maths for Class 10th, it is in the interest of justice to conduct re-examination of all the papers of Class 12th within four weeks from today and not only of the Economics. This is further required keeping in view a situation that in future if upon further investigation it is revealed that the question papers of few more subjects were leaked then the initiation of fresh process for conducting the re-examination of those subjects will hamper and adversely affect the valuable time and career prospects of many students appearing in CBSE Class 12th Examination this year.”
Further, the petioner has also sought an independent investigation by the CBI into the matter: “Considering the slow pace of the investigation of the instant case and also considering the fact that the instant case has wider repercussion across India and also in various places abroad, wherein the CBSE Examinations are being conducted, it is in the interest of justice to direct the Respondent No.3 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct investigation into the captioned incident of paper leak of the Class 10th and 12th examinations conducted by the Respondent No.1 CBSE”.
Connecting the paper leak episode to fundamental rights Srivastava has also contended that on account of the acts and omissions on the part of the CBSE and the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the fundamental rights of lakhs of students appearing in Class 10th and12th Board examination, as enshrined within Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India have been infringed. He prayed that, “in the interest of justice”, the aforesaid authorities be directed to pay damages and compensation of Rs. 1 lakh each to the students of Class 12 appearing in the re-examination “towards the mental agony, mental stress and inconvenience caused”.
The present petition is in stark contrast to the earlier writ petition filed by a student of Class X against the decision of the CBSE to cancel and re-conduct the Mathematics exam held on March 28 on suspicion of question paper leakage.
The petitioner has also relied on the 2015 judgment of the apex court in Tanvi Sarwal v. CBSE & Others, [2015 (6) SCC 573], wherein the Supreme Court had cancelled the All-India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) examination conducted by the CBSE on the ground of certain irregularities and malpractices adopted few candidates and directed the Board to re-conduct the said examination.
Now it has to be seen whether the Supreme Court interferes in the whole matter as there are large number parents and children who are interested in the same. The re-test for Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE’s) Class 12 economics paper are scheduled to be held on April 25, while the Class 10 mathematics re-test, if required, will be conducted only for Delhi-NCR and Haryana in July, the government has said.