‘Burn the midnight oil’: Supreme Court to CBSE on plea to declare Class 12 improvement exam result

3 min readNew DelhiJun 8, 2026 03:52 PM IST

The Board’s counsel had sought time until June 15, saying “CBSE is already overworked", but the Supreme Court did not budge and issued notice. (AI Generated Image)

The Supreme Court Monday sought the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE )’s response to a plea by a Class 12 student from Saudi Arabia, seeking directions to the Board to declare the results of his improvement exam.

While presiding over a two-judge bench, Justice Manmohan told the Board’s counsel, “This is about the career of a child, he will miss all his admissions… Whatever it is, burn the midnight oil.”

Justice Manmohan fixed the matter for hearing again on Friday, June 12.

The Board’s counsel had sought time until June 15, saying “CBSE is already overworked”, but the bench did not budge and issued notice.

Petitioner Pransu Jigarkumar Patel said a scheme was put in place in many Middle Eastern countries to assess students after exams, following the cancellation of exams by CBSE amid the West Asia crisis.

As per the “Assessment Scheme for Declaration of Results of Class XII in West Asian Countries”, students whose exams were pending because of the cancellation were to be assessed based on their school records. It also said that if a student is not satisfied with the assessment, they could take one more chance to write the exams of the cancelled papers.

Patel registered for the 2026 Class 12 improvement examination for Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English, and Computer Science as a private candidate in Saudi Arabia. However, after the Board cancelled some Class 12 exams in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, etc., he could sit only for the Physics and Chemistry papers. When the results were announced, his status was marked “RL (Result Later”.

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Patel, a student at the International Indian School in Al Jubail in 2025, contended that his records were available with the school and could have been used for the assessment, and that the refusal to do so was impacting his plans to pursue further studies.

As the matter came up Monday, Patel’s counsel said the Board had not clarified whether the assessment scheme would apply to students taking the improvement exam as private candidates. He said students cannot be punished for the cancellation of exams due to the war.

In his plea, Patel said he is being “subjected to hostile discrimination despite being similarly situated to other students affected by cancellation of examinations in West Asian countries”.

The Board’s counsel said the school had to do the assessment, but may not have done it, as he is a private candidate. He added that CBSE was already on it.

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The court said the student’s prior records could be considered in making the assessment.