Delhi high court struck down the CBSE's selective re-evaluation policy in an important verdict. The policy had restricted students to ten questions in 10 subjects but now the students can opt for re-evaluation in all subjects. The decision-making bench, led by Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal termed the restriction as “eccentric“. In this important verdict, the Delhi high court upheld 2 separate verdicts:
- In the 1st verdict, the judge has faulted the CBSE for allowing only 10 questions for re-evaluation,
- The second Bench has ordered to re-evaluate physical education theory paper of the students.
In the year 2014, CBSE was the first board to introduce re-evaluation service. CBSE has first introduced re-evaluation facility only for eight subjects, which was later made ten in the subsequent year. In 2016, CBSE decided to scrap the idea of Re-evaluation the court order has come in this regard.
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The bench observed that present selective re-evaluation rule of CBSE might lead frustrations and discontentment if the students don’t get expected the result and the bench said that that “it should be the students' prerogative to get their answer sheets re-evaluated to ensure proper assessment is done“.
About CBSE Re-evaluation Rule
Under the re-evaluation rule, there are three steps to be followed wherein first the students had to apply for recounting of marks. After that, the students can be able to ask for the photocopy of the evaluated answer sheets. If the student is not satisfied with their evaluated answer sheets, they can take the 3rd step to re-evaluate their answer sheet. These all three steps are connected to each other so every candidate has to follow these three rules.
The CBSE board argued with the division bench that the under the rule the board stored more than lakhs of copies after the examination, as many students apply for re-evaluation. The CBST tried to defend its restriction on a total number of question & subjects. In the argument, the CBSE also cited certain Supreme Court judgments and said it has the power to deny re-evaluation. However, the Delhi high court has rejected the CBSE’s stand and said that administrative difficulties of the Central Board of Secondary Education couldn't over-ride the future of the students.
The decision-making bench observed while ruling in favour of students said that; “It is rather eccentric to first provide for the facility of re-evaluation to the candidates and after that put unreasonable restrictions. The board cannot afford to ignore individual claims of re-evaluation at its whims or fancy, by merely `pick and choose' from subjects or number of questions".
