Chennai: As the number of corona cases continued to be on the upswing, the Madras High Court today said it would not allow the Tamilnadu government to conduct the tenth standard board exams from June 15 risking the lives of more than nine lakh students.
On a plea filed by the TN High and Higher Secondary School Grade Teachers Association challenging the state government’s decision to hold the exams from June 15, a Division Bench comprising Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice R Suresh Kumar said, “we cannot allow the state to put the lives of more than nine lakh students at stake…this is not like opening TASMAC liquor shops during lockdown.”
The Bench made it clear that it was prima facie convinced to restrain the state from conducing the tenth standard board exams from 15 June.
“Can the TN government give an undertaking that no student will get corona infection if it is allowed to conduct tenth standard board exams from 15 June”, the bench asked.
In his submission, counsel for the petitioner said the government should reconsider its decision since the number of positive cases has been increasing every day.
The decision to hold the exams was taken in the last week of May and at that point of time the govrenment might have been under impression that the situation would become better in June. But it has worsened now, he said.
The petitioner said there would be a total of 12,690 exam centres for class 10 and 7,400 centres for class XI involving more than 2.3 lakhs invigilators.
This apart, there would be police personnel, drivers and parents who will all be put to several hardshp due to holding of the exams.
Meanwhile, leaders of various political parties also urged the government to cancel the exams and hold it after the coronavirus was eradicated.
In a statmeent here, DMK president M K Stalin accused the government of playing with the lives of students as Chennai has become the COVID hotspot in the entire state.
PMK, an ally of the ruling AIADMK said wanted the government to declare that all class 10 students have passed the exam as it did not students of class 1 to 9.
PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, in a statement here said the state government should not hold the exams as the virus was spreading fast.
The Court after hearing state government’s submissions adjourned the case to 11 June and suggested to it to reconsider the decision of holding the exams on 15 June as the corona cases were on the rise.
Responding to the government’s argument that it was the right time to hold the exams as the corona virus would increase further, the Bench said there was no logic to hold the exams now.
After asking the government to file a detailed reply by 11 June, the court adjourned the case to that date and said it would be heard along with other pleas on the matter.