The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Central Board of Secondary Education, the Centre and the Aam Aadmi government in Delhi regarding a petition seeking modification of the board’s policy to calculate marks for Class 10 students, Live Law reported.

The CBSE had on May 1 introduced a new policy to calculate marks for Class 10 students, as board exams were cancelled in view of the coronavirus crisis.

The new policy stated that students will be evaluated out of 100 marks for each subject. Twenty marks will be for internal assessment, while 80 will be based on a student’s performance in tests or pre-board exams conducted throughout the year. The CBSE added that the marks should be in consonance with the past performance of the school in Class 10 board examinations.

The petition seeking changes to the policy was filed by Justice for All, a non-governmental organisation. It told the court that the CBSE assessed the performance of schools based on last three years and this was not fair to individual students, Bar and Bench reported.

The petitioner added:

“The policy of moderation of marks devised by the board is absolutely constitutional, in contrast to the fundamental right guaranteed to the students under Article 21A of the Constitution of India, as the performance of a student of the present batch, is being judged and calculated by the performance of the previous batch of students, the performance of teachers of the school, also with the performance of the state or district.” 

— Justice for All, an NGO

The petitioner also said the policy was “absolutely unreasonable, illogical and punitive” for the students, according to Live Law.

Apart from the modification of the policy, the petitioner demanded that all CBSE-affiliated schools publish a rationale document of assessment criteria on their websites and the same must be uploaded on the board’s portal so that students can access it and flag any concerns they might have.

The court will now take up the matter on August 27, according to ANI.

India has been battling the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, the CBSE and the the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations cancelled their Class 12 board exams in view of the coronavirus situation.

The decision was announced after CBSE held a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said that the health and safety of the students was of utmost importance and there would be no compromise on it.