The Union government on Friday (June 12, 2026) informed the Supreme Court that it was considering a policy to accommodate private students in West Asia whose examination results could not be declared by the CBSE owing to the prevailing conflict in the region.

A Bench of Justices Augustine George Masih and Vijay Bishnoi was informed by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, that a decision was likely to be taken shortly. He accordingly requested the Bench to defer the hearing to June 22. “This is a wider issue. The government is considering laying down some policy for similarly situated students,” the law officer submitted.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by Class 12 student Pransu Jigarkumar Patel from Saudi Arabia seeking directions to the Board to declare the results of his improvement examination.

Mr. Patel had appeared as a private candidate for the 2026 Class 12 improvement examinations in physics, chemistry, mathematics, English and computer science in Saudi Arabia. However, after the CBSE cancelled certain Class 12 examinations in several West Asian countries on March 15 amid the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict, he was able to appear only for the physics and chemistry papers.

The CBSE subsequently issued a notification titled ‘Assessment scheme for declaration of results of Class XII in West Asian countries’ on March 27 to facilitate the declaration of results for students affected by the cancellations. Under the scheme, marks for the cancelled papers were to be derived from school assessments, including the “best of the three marks obtained in quarterly, half-yearly and pre-board examinations”.

The Board declared the results on May 13. However, Mr. Patel claimed that his result was withheld and that his status was reflected as “RL (Result Later)”, prompting him to approach the top court.

Hearing on June 22

On Friday, the counsel appearing for Mr. Patel submitted that the CBSE already had a policy governing students whose examinations had been disrupted by the conflict. The Bench, however, observed that it would defer the matter to June 22 to enable the Centre to place its proposed policy on record.

“If specifically they [the Centre] are taking care of you, what is wrong in that? You want relief or not?” the Bench asked.

In his plea, Mr. Patel said the non-declaration of his results had placed his higher education plans in jeopardy and amounted to a violation of his constitutional guarantees.

The plea alleged that he was being subjected to “hostile discrimination” despite being similarly situated to other students affected by the cancellation of examinations in West Asian countries. It further contended that a student could not be made to suffer on account of examinations being cancelled due to war-related circumstances beyond their control.

According to the plea, representations submitted by Mr. Patel on May 17, May 21 and May 30 requesting resolution of the issue remained unanswered. He therefore urged the top court to direct the Union Ministry of Education, the CBSE and the CBSE Regional Officer at Dubai to declare his result.