The Central Board of Secondary Education has postponed all Class 10 and Class 12 exams that were to be held on April 2 in Punjab. In the rest of the country, including the Union Territory of Chandigarh, exams will be conducted as per schedule. The date of the exams for Punjab will be announced later.

This decision came after Dalit organisations called for a statewide shutdown on April 2, prompting the Punjab government to announce that transport services, education institutions and banks will be closed on Monday. Even mobile internet services will be suspended.

The Indian Express reported that Dalit organisation called for the shutdown in protest against the Supreme Court’s judgement restricting the scope of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act.

The school board said in a statement that it had received a letter from Punjab’s Director General of School Education, saying that “due to apprehensions of law and order problems and other disturbances on 2nd April 2018 during the call for Bharat Bandh given by some organisations, the state government has taken a decision to keep all schools closed on that day and have also requested CBSE to postpone all its examinations to be held on 2nd April 2018”. The board accepted the request.