Supreme Court pans Andhra govt. over plan to hold Class 12 exams
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The Andhra Pradesh authorities’s insistence to have its Class 12 college students courageous the pandemic to attend exams noticed the Supreme Court undertake a tough line on Thursday, saying the State can be held accountable and even be made to pay ₹1 crore as compensation in case of deaths.
A Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari requested the Andhra Pradesh authorities what it was making an attempt to show by risking lives when different States throughout the nation had opted to cancel their State Board exams.
“Are you trying to prove you are different? Nobody should try to prove anything here… This is about lives,” Justice Maheshwari addressed advocate Mahfooz A. Nazki, for Andhra Pradesh.
“Unless we are convinced that you will be able to conduct exams without any fatality, we will not allow this exam to be held. When other Boards have cancelled their exam, you want to prove you can… are you trying to do that?” Justice Khanwilkar requested.
Justice Khanwilkar stated the “State will be responsible for any fatality… Remember, there are States which pay ₹1 crore to frontline workers, we will have to think something on those terms in your case”.
The courtroom grilled the State in regards to the ambiguity of its eight-page affidavit on the why and the way it plans to conduct the exams by July finish amid the pandemic.
“Have you not seen there is a new variant of the virus called ‘Delta Plus’… The Centre has said that some States — Kerala, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh — are more prone to this variant… We don’t know how this is going to pan out… We cannot say, neither can you, what will happen by the end of July,” Justice Khanwilkar highlighted the uncertainty written massive in Andhra’s examination plans.
The courtroom requested the State to clarify the assertion in its affidavit that it could seat solely 15 to 18 college students in each examination corridor.
“You say you have 5.19 lakh students taking the Class 12 exams. Simple maths shows you will need 34,634 rooms if you seat 15 students to a class and 28,864 rooms for 18 students to a room. Do you have the space for that or are you planning to conduct exams in the open? Show us a screenshot of your records on the decision… The rooms, again, should be well-ventilated. Besides, you will need over 34,000 invigilators… You have made statements in the affidavit without showing us how you arrived at this decision or how you plan to carry it out,” Justice Khanwilkar instructed the State authorities facet.
“Other Boards have taken a conscious decision to not conduct the exams… But your affidavit says ‘you will endeavour to tentatively conduct the exams’,” Justice Maheshwari addressed the Andhra facet.
The courtroom requested whether or not the State had a “contingency plan” if the COVID state of affairs acquired worse halfway by means of the conduct of the exams.
“You should have a specific, concrete plan and give a firm commitment to the court that you will observe complete COVID protocol. We are not very convinced about your plans… This is a sensitive issue regarding the lives of students and others,” Justice Maheshwari stated.
Justice Khanwilkar requested when the State would declare the outcomes if it supposed to conduct exams solely by July-end.
“Students in CBSE, ICSE and other Boards would get admissions, your students would be left out,” Justice Khanwilkar stated.
Mr. Nazki stated he would take directions on the problems flagged by the courtroom. The Bench scheduled a listening to on June 25 at 2 p.m.
In its affidavit filed on June 23, the Andhra Pradesh authorities stated it could have to hold exams as a result of there was no different (*12*) to assess the efficiency of scholars.
It had stated that in contrast to the CBSE and different Boards, the Andhra system gave grades in Class 10 and never marks. The State Board had no fool-proof manner to verify the interior exams performed in numerous faculties.
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