Slamming the Andhra government’s decision to conduct offline Class 12 exams next month despite the pandemic’ unwillingness to rest, the Supreme Court warned to hold South-Indian state government responsible “if there is even one fatality”.
The top court’s statement came on Thursday and added that in case anyone dies, it “may order compensation amounting to ₹ 1 crore”.
Questioning Andhra Pradesh of its reasons to go ahead with the examinations while other states are taking precautions and refraining from taking the unsafe move, a 2-member bench consisting of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari asked, “If there is even one fatality we may order compensation amounting to ₹ 1 crore… when other boards had cancelled, why (does) Andhra Pradesh want to show it is different?”
“There are states giving ₹ 1 crore as compensation to families of those who died. We may keep this amount for Andhra Pradesh also,” the court said this morning, further asking the government the reason for its need to conduct offline exams at a time when new aggressive mutant strains of coronavirus are emerging.
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“Other boards took a conscious decision based on the ground reality. There is a new variant – ‘delta plus’. Nobody is clear how it will affect us… Who took the decision to hold these exams and what are the parameters on which the decision was taken?” the top court asked.
The bench expressed its doubts about the state government’s plan of action, saying that it’s a matter of everyone’s health and not about exams.
To discover the person who took the decision to hold in-person exams, the Supreme Court directed AP to submit file notings and documents that mention the authority, individual or government body’s name and check if they had paid heed to all risks and concerns.
The direction was given during a hearing held to look into the petition filed for cancelling Class 12 exams in Andhra Pradesh. It will be continued tomorrow.
In view of the pandemic, 21 states cancelled Class 12 exams to be conducted by their respective state boards of education. Apart from state syllabus boards, even CBSE and CISCE have cancelled their Class 12 examinations.
Defending its decision, the AP government told the court on Tuesday that it will conduct state board exams as the pandemic crisis was improving in the region. The SC, however, ordered an affidavit filed in response to the pleas for cancellation
Further, the state government said in its affidavit filed on Wednesday that it did not have any option other than going ahead with the offline exams. While other states are taking up the marks of internal assessments for basing the results of final exams, the AP state government does not have the authority in schools’ internal marks, it said. It added that these internal assessment marks might also not be correct enough to base the results.
In the affidavit, it said there will be about 15-18 students allowed in each examination hall, giving ample space to follow social distancing rules.
“One issue… in your affidavit you said students will be divided – 15 to 18 students in one room. Have you worked out the number of rooms needed? You require 34,634 rooms… where will you get so many rooms? Are you going to have exams in the open?” the court unconvinced with this plan asked.
In the hearing that seemed like a debate between the top court and state government, AP replied that they have already identified 34,000 rooms and about 50,000 teaching and non-teaching staff members were vaccinated to take part in the examination invigilation.
The same bench had approved the CBSE, CISCE decision to choose internal marks for declaring the results of Class 12 students. Rejecting the requests of some parents and students who urged for offline exams, the SC praised the boards calling it “fair and reasonable”.
This year, nearly 5.2 lakh students will be giving their Class 12 exams in the southern state.
