Supreme Court to hear pleas over CBSE paper leaks on April 4

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on April 4, two petitions seeking a CBI probe in the wake of the question paper leak of Class 10 and Class 12 examinations conducted by the CBSE this year as well as compensation to students for mental agony.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud told counsel Harris Beeran, who made a mention for early listing, that all matters will be heard on April 4.

The petitioner, advocate Alakh Alok Srivatsava, of Haryana in his PIL contended that the Union government and its agencies, being the custodian of our children, have collectively not only failed our young kids, but have also shaken their faith over the system, law and order, that too at a premature age.

Kochi-based student Rohan Mathew, a CBSE student of Class 10, also prayed for a probe by a high-powered committee to fix responsibility for the lapses in the conduct of the examination.  

Mr Srivastava said considering that there is a strong possibility of other question papers of Class 10 and 12 also leaked and circulated online, apart from the question papers of Economics for Class 12 and Mathematics for Class 10, it is in the interest of justice to conduct re-examination of all the papers of Class 12 within four weeks and not only of 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 12 Examination this year.

It was submitted that in view of the fact that many of the students appearing in this Class 12 Examination are also slated to appear in various competitive examinations, in the interest of justice court should direct the CBSE to carefully fix the schedule of the said Class 12 re-examination in such manner that none of the proposed date of re-examination clashes with any date of any competitive examination to be held in near future in India or abroad in which such students of Class 12 are likely to appear.

The petitioner prayed compensation of Rs.1 Lakh each to each of the students of Class 12th appearing in such re-examination towards towards mental agony, mental stress and inconvenience caused.