Exam centers for Class 10, 12 hiked to 15,000

New Delhi: The CBSE will conduct the pending class 10 and 12 board exams at 15,000 centres across the country instead of 3,000 centres planned earlier, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' announced on Monday.

The exams, which were postponed due to a nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of COVID-19, will now be held from July 1 to 15. "The class 10, 12 exams will now be conducted at over 15,000 exam centres across India. Earlier, CBSE was slated to hold exams at only 3,000 centres," Nishank said.

The decision has been taken to ensure social distancing at exam centres and minimise travel for students. The HRD ministry has already announced that students will appear for exams at schools in which they are enrolled rather than external examination centres. According to home ministry guidelines, there will be no exam centre in COVID-19 containment zones and states will be responsible for making transport arrangements for students to reach their respective centres.

The bench conducted an urgent hearing on Eid holiday, through video conferencing, to hear the appeals of Centre and Air India against the Bombay High Court order. The Bombay High Court had barred the middle seat occupancy in on-scheduled international flights on Air India's pilot, Deven Kanani's petition alleging violation of social distancing guidelines. The apex court asked the Bombay High Court to decide on the matter against Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) circulars expeditiously, and insisted airlines should follow the High Court order in connection with safety measures.

"We make it clear that the DGCA is free to alter any norms he may consider necessary during the pendency of the matter in the interest of public health and safety of the passengers rather than of commercial considerations," added the bench.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contended before the court that immense difficulty has arisen because of the passengers who are stranded on foreign soil at the airports after they were issued valid tickets for travel. And, this has resulted in a lot of anxiety and difficulties arising from want of proper shelter, money, etc., at the foreign airports, he added.

"Moreover, in some cases, the travel plan of families who were travelling together has been disrupted because those in the families who had middle seats have to be offloaded and remain behind," said Mehta. The top court said "at this juncture, we would consider it necessary for the High Court to arrive at a prima facie finding regarding the safety and health of the passengers qua the COVID-19 virus, whether the flight is scheduled flight or a non-scheduled flight."

The top court asked the Bombay High Court to pass an effective interim order after hearing all concerned, in the backdrop of health risk posed by Covid-19 pandemic, on the next date of hearing June 2.