Plea against CBSE grading system quashed

The Delhi high court has dismissed a petition filed by a group of national schools, challenging the CBSE decision to introduce the grading system to evaluate Class IX and X students from academic year 2009-2010. Turning down the plea by Independent Schools’ Federation of India, a bench of
chief justice Dipak Misra and justice Sanjiv Khanna said the court would not like to interfere with the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) decision, which is a policy matter.

“This court is not an expert to judge the decision of CBSE, that has been arrived at after undertaking (a) detailed exercise. It is a policy decision relating to education,” the bench said.

The court accepted the regulatory body’s reasoning for introduction of the grading system, saying CBSE had intended to make the system more effective.
The high court’s division bench upheld the single judge’s verdict, which had endorsed CBSE’s decision, saying the education regulatory body had consulted experts from the field of education before introducing the new methodology.

Dismissing the school counsel’s arguments that the CBSE decision was arbitrary and unconstitutional, the court said, “We are unable to persuade ourselves to accept the submission of the petitioner counsel that the circular introducing the new methodology of CBSE invites the frown of Article 14 of the Constitution of India being unreasonable and arbitrary”.