Karnataka High Court refuses to hear petition on grading issue in SSLC exam

Bengaluru: In a setback to the state government, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain the petition to review the April 15 order pertaining to valuation of third language papers in the SSLC examinations. Justice E S Indiresh observed that there is no error apparent in the order.

On April 15, while disposing of the petition filed by three students, who appeared for the recently concluded SSLC examinations, the high court had directed the authorities to conduct the valuation as per the existing rules, as per the circular dated October 28, 2025.

The court had noted that this circular was prevailing on the date of the issuance of notification pertaining to the examination for the academic year 2025-26.

During the hearing on the review petition, Advocate General Shashikiran Shetty (AG) submitted that the petitioners had relied upon the newspaper report about the statement of Minister for Primary and Secondary education on introduction of grading system for valuation of the third language in the SSLC examinations.

The minister’s statement, relied upon by a PIL petitioner, was not entertained by a division bench of the high court and imposed Rs 1 lakh cost upon the petitioners, the AG said.

The review petition had contended that the petitioners had not disclosed the April 10, 2026, notification by which the draft rules - Karnataka Secondary Examination Board First (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2026) – have been published.

The draft rules would amend Karnataka Secondary Examination Board First Regulations introducing the grading system for the marks obtained in third language/National Scheme Qualification Framework (NSQF), effective from the 2025-26 SSLC exam.

The AG submitted that a grading system is being introduced as several students, mostly from rural areas, were failing in the third languages. At this, Justice Indiresh orally asked as to whether the state government intends to introduce a grading system to pass all the students.

On other hand, the counsel for the petitioners submitted that doing away with the marks system would hamper the opportunity for the students to secure more marks in the third language and would impact their overall ranks in the SSLC examination.

Disposing of the review petition filed by the state, Justice Indiresh noted that the notification pertaining to the draft rules was issued on April 10 while the SSLC examinations were over by April 2.

The court further pointed out that at the time of disposal of the writ petition filed by the students, there was no rule in force promulgated by the competent authority.

The court, however, acceded to the submission made by the AG to change a portion in the April 15 wherein it had held that ‘any subsequent modification is contrary to the Article 14 of the Constitution of India’.

During the hearing, Justice Indiresh orally observed that a section of students does take up Kannada as their third language and if the grading system is introduced, such students may not take up the subject seriously.

“If you ask those students to list the Jnanpith awardees of Kannada, they may include Ranna and Pampa (10th century poets) in the list,” the judge orally said.