SSLC grading row: K’taka government files review petition in HC

Bengaluru, The Karnataka government has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against a single judge’s order to conduct the valuation of the recent SSLC examination as per the existing rules, state minister Madhu Bangarappa said on Saturday.

The recent Karnataka HC directive meant awarding marks, not grades for third language papers in the SSLC exam as announced by the government.

Earlier this week, the court had directed the authorities to conduct the evaluation of the recently conducted SSLC examination as per the existing rules, when the notification for the examination for the 2025-26 academic year was issued.

The court issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by three students who appeared for the SSLC examination held between March 18 and April 2.

The petition followed School Education and Literacy Minister Bangarappa’s announcement on March 27 that from this academic year, the government will replace the scoring system for the third language in the SSLC exam with a grading system that will not affect a student’s overall results.

However, this announcement was made before the third language exam.

“After hearing a petition by some students, the court asked to conduct exams as per 2025-26 notification. The AG filed a revision petition on this…..the AG said that with a revision petition we will fight the case,” Bangarappa said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said that earlier, when a PIL was filed with a similar plea, the court had imposed a fine on the petitioners. Some Hindi teachers who had filed a petition later withdrew it.

“Let’s see what happens. I will also keep the Chief Minister informed about this. Probably the case may come up for hearing on Tuesday. Let’s see what happens,” he added.

He said that there is no need for students to worry, he said that the right decision will be taken and things will be taken care of.

“I will discuss with the chief minister what needs to be done and we will take a decision at the earliest. There will be no delay in the results. Keeping in mind what the court says, we will take decisions accordingly,” he said.

Pointing out that the SSLC results would tentatively be announced on April 24, Bangarappa said there could be a difference of one or two days, but there would not be a long delay or deadlock.

The minister said during the announcement on March 27 that the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination had a total of 625 marks until now, including 100 marks for the third language. With this decision, the total will be reduced to 525 points.

Noting that Hindi is not the only language taught as a third language in the state, the minister then said, “but, Hindi is the third language taught the most.”

He also said that most students fail in this subject, adding that this decision is aimed at easing that burden amid complaints that Kannadiga children find it difficult to read and write Hindi.

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