The CBSE Class XII students who are appearing for the exams privately, patrachar (home-schooled) students, repeaters and the students who have to appear for compartmental examinations will have to appear for the examinations between August 15 and September 15, said the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The court was hearing a plea that sought the cancellation of these examinations.

The court also noted that the CBSE's new evaluation scheme wasn't applicable to these students. "Analogy of (the) proposed scheme cannot be applied to private, compartment or patrachar students. The present scheme provides that exams will be duly conducted in which all these students can appear as private candidates and that exam will be between August 15 and September 15 and results will be declared at the earliest. The scheme deals with this eventuality," a bench of justices AM Khanwiklar and Dinesh Maheshwari noted.

At the same time, the court had dismissed a petition that sought to conduct the examination, which was cancelled by the board and the Ministry of Education on June 1. "We hold that there is no reason to interfere with schemes propounded by the CBSE and the ICSE as there are other sets of students supporting this and also cos we find the scheme is reasonable and takes into concerns of all students and is in the larger public interest," said the court, adding, "All aspects were taken into account and the decision regarding the formulation of the scheme was taken with a holistic approach to ensure no candidate is prejudiced. It’s not possible to approach the second guess approach."

The same bench will hear the matter again tomorrow, to take a call on the conduct of examinations by a few state boards.