In a setback to the State government, the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday (March 6) quashed the State government’s decision to hold board examinations for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 from the academic year 2023-24 and said it was taken without following the due process of law.
The court said the scheme of holding board exams was taken without framing the rules under Sections 22 and 145 of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, which mandates that the government will have to frame rules for the implementation of the examination system besides seeking views from stakeholders prior to finalising such rules.
“When the government intends to bring changes to the examination system affecting such a large number of students, it would be desirable as well as mandatory to follow the democratic procedure stipulated,” the court said. In case of failure to follow the stipulated procedure, the court said, “there need be no further justification to set such faulty measures at naught, regardless of merit of the policy and the object behind such measures”.
