Telangana: Jail term isn't applicable to minor students, argue lawyers
Hyderabad: The school education department of Telangana has warned that students caught cheating in exams in Telangana will land up behind bars and the affiliation of schools found encouraging mass copying will be withdrawn and its officials jailed.
The Andhra Pradesh Education Act 1982 and the Andhra Pradesh Public Examinations (Prevention of Malpractices and Unfair Means) Act, 1997, which were adapted by the Telangana government, empowers it to book persons found indulging in malpractices and punish them for jail terms ranging from three to seven years, together with a fine of between Rs 5,000 and Rs 1 lakh.
Sarotham Reddy, president of the Progressive Recognised Teachers Union said that the state government has no power to jail students. But as K. Sravan Kumar, Supreme Court lawyer pointed out, the law does not permit penal action against minor children, and SSC students are under 16 years of age.
He said though mass copying is a criminal offence as per the malpractices act, it does not apply to students below 16 years of age and they cannot be sent even to juvenile homes as they are not committing a serious crime like theft, rape or murder that harms others.
He was not in favour of jail terms for students and said that students must be educated about the nature of their act and the quality of education in schools must improve.
Following the criticism over the jail term the director of school education G Kishan said the provision would be invoked against erring students only in “extreme cases.”
He said that if a student was caught cheating in the examination, he or she would not be sent to jail, however they will act as per the existing law. He said that generally students found copying are barred from sitting for any further examinations or are rusticated in serious cases. Mr Kumar said that instead of students, the government must focus on school managements that are found to be encouraging mass copying and other kinds of malpractices.
