AP High Court tells government to reconsider Class 10, Intermediate exams
Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday asked the state government to reconsider its decision to go ahead with the conduct of final exams to Class 10 and Intermediate in the wake of the spread of Coronavirus.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice A.K. Goswami and Justice C. Praveen Kumar heard a batch of petitions filed by students seeking either postponement or cancellation of the exams in the wake of the prevalence of the second wave of the pandemic.
The court observed that when nearly 30 lakh students and teachers were to take part in the exercise, how they could be protected from getting infected with the virus. It asked how exams would be held for students infected with the virus as they were supposed to be either in home isolation or in the hospital taking treatment as per the norms of the Centre.
The court said that several states either deferred or cancelled the exams while CBSE and ICSE also followed suit and asked the state government to reconsider its decision on the conduct of final exams and asked the government to file a memo and posted the next hearing on May 3.
However, advocate-general S. Sriram informed the court that the state government was taking all necessary measures to conduct the exams without causing any trouble to the students.
It may be mentioned that the state government, despite facing severe criticism from the opposition parties on its decision to go ahead with the conduct of annual exams for Class 10 and intermediate, has been maintaining that it was for the good academic future of the students.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy also clarified on the issue by saying that it would take no time either to defer or to cancel the exams but as their government was committed to safeguarding the academic interests of the students, they had taken a decision that involved a lot of preparations for the conduct of exams to ensure no student or teacher to be infected with the virus.
