Karnataka High Court
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday quashed the state government's notification prescribing 'board examinations' (summative assessment - 2) for students of classes 5, 8, 9 and 11, days ahead of the scheduled commencement of the exams on March 11.
Justice Ravi V Hosmani held the notifications unsustainable, observing that however laudable the policy, objective and necessity of mandating Uniform summative assessment, the same cannot cure the procedural defects.
"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 democratic procedure stipulated. And in case of failure, there need be no further justification to set such faulty measures at naught, regardless of merit policy and object behind such measures," Justice Ravi V Hosmani said while quashing the notifications dated October 6, 2023 and October 9, 2023, issued by the state school education department.
The petitions were filed by the Organization for Unaided Recognized Schools and Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association, Karnataka.
The state government had initially issued a circular in the academic year 2022-23 prescribing public examinations for classes 5 and 8. A single bench had quashed the circular. The state government had moved an appeal, but subsequently withdrew it. The new notifications were issued for the year 2023-24 claiming to have been issued under the provisions of Karnataka Education Act (KEA), 1983.
The petitioners argued that section 22(2) of the KEA contemplates framing of rules and not issuance of notification and therefore the notifications are bad in law. It was also argued that section 145 of the KEA mandates previous publication of draft rules and the same has not been followed. It was also submitted that notifications violate section 30 of the Right to Education (RTE) Act which prohibits requiring children to pass board exams till completion of elementary education.
On the other hand, the state government argued that the proposed examinations/assessments are to be viewed as being preparatory in nature, modelled to equip students to confront the challenges of the board examinations in classes 10 and 12. Such a scheme of assessment is necessitated in order to bring about uniformity in the standards of education in the state, the state said.
The court noted that though the state is attempting to justify the notifications under the provisions of KEA, they cannot escape compliance with section 145 (4) of KEA.
“Even though impugned notifications are Gazetted, they have not been issued after following procedure contemplated in Section 145 (4) of Education Act. Hence, impugned notifications are liable to be quashed in entirety,” the court said.