Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Tamilnadu government to conduct the cancelled online arrear exams for college students within eight weeks.
When the two PILs filed by advocate Ramkumar Adityan and former Anna Uiversity Vice-Chancellor E Balaguruasamy, challenging the 26 August Government Order cancelling the arrear exams in view of the Covid pandemic, the State government informed that no student will be declared pass without attending the online arrear exams as mandated by the UGC.
“We have decided to abide by the UGC guidelines and it will be mandatory for all students who have arrears to attend online exams,” Advocate General Vijay Narayan said.
After recording his submissions, the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Mr Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamorthy directed the State government to conduct online exams within eight weeks.
During the earlier hearing, the court did not accept the State government’s decision to announce that students who have arrears as having passed without making them write exams.
The issue pertained to the GO issued on 26 August, 2021, cancelling arrear exams for students in Arts, Science, Engineering and Computer Application (masters) programmes, except those in their final years.
The government had announced that all students who have arrears (except in their final years) and have paid the fees to write the exams will be declared ‘pass’ due to the Covid-19 situation.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) also refused to accept the State government’s order as it was in violation of the norms stipulated by the UGC.