Supreme Court tells Karnataka to avoid defiance in holding board exam for classes 5, 8 & 9

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Karnataka government to desist from doing anything in defiance of the court's order as it was informed about a proposal of conducting board exams for Classes 5, 8 and 9 in the current academic year.

Within hours, the Karnataka government's Deputy Director for School Education Kalaburagi district retrieved with immediate effect a communication issued on September 4, and 15 regarding timetable for year 2024-25 for classes 8, 9 and 10 for summative assessment exam.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma earlier said they should not do anything which will be in defiance of the court order or strict action will be taken as advocate K V Dhananjay contended the proposal to conduct similar examinations would be in contempt of the court's order.

The counsel for the petitioners said the court had by an interim order stayed the decision of the Karnataka Government to hold board examinations for Classes 5, 8 and 9.

The court allowed Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools & Reg (Our Schools) to file a contempt plea and posted the matter for consideration next week.

On March 12, 2024, the apex court had set aside an interim order of the Karnataka High Court's division bench order allowing the state government to conduct board exams for the summative assessment of students of classes 5, 8, and 9 as per the schedule.

"You have spoiled the entire education system of the country and now you want to complicate it. Please do not do that," the top court had told the Karnataka government counsel in strong observations.

On April 8, 2024, hours after announcement of results for board examinations for classes for 5, 8, 9, and 11 in Karnataka, the Supreme Court had ordered the state authorities to keep it in abeyance and not consider for any purpose whatsoever, while rebuking them for playing with future of students and causing hardships to parents.

The court had then stayed the operation and implementation of the Karnataka High Court's order of March 22, allowing the state government to conduct the board examinations.

The petitioners contended that the Karnataka government issued notifications in three rural districts to hold public examinations, where question papers will be set by the administrative office