Sources said UT Education Secretary Anuradha Gupta had sought special permission from the CBSE chairman to allow such students to take the Plus Two examination next year so that they do not lose a year. But, the CBSE authorities have not accepted the plea as "it amounts to violation of their rules applicable throughout the country".

With this decision, scores of students will lose a year of senior secondary schooling. While the Plus Two students will have to repeat Plus One, those provisionally admitted to Plus One will either be reverted back to Class X or will have to appear privately for the compartment examination.

The request was put forth when the examination forms of students who had cleared their Class X compartment in the second attempt were not accepted by the local CBSE authorities. Though instructions to this effect are contained in the examination bye-laws and the senior school curriculum since long, this was added as an additional clause in the examination forms this year.

The clause reads that "no candidate who has passed the secondary school examination (Class X) in the second chance compartment in 1998 is eligible to appear in Plus Two in 1999". But, many private and government schools in the City had been flouting these rules. The CBSE had earlier issued instructions to the head of the institutions that candidates who fail to clear the compartment examination in the first chance are not eligible to continue provisionally in Plus One. And if such students have been provisionally admitted, their admission may be cancelled as they cannot appear simultaneously for Plus One as well as second-chance compartment examination.

The All India Delhi Senior School Certificate Examination rules also specify that a candidate should have passed the Class X examination at least two years earlier than the year in which he/she would appear for the Plus Two examination.