The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Kerala government to conduct physical examinations of Class 11 in the state, trusting the authorities to follow all Covid-19 precautions to avert any harm to students and observing that the third wave of the pandemic was not in the offing immediately.
A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar said, “We are convinced by the explanation offered by the state government. We hope and trust that the authorities will take all precautions to ensure no untoward incident is faced by students who are of tender age and are appearing for the examination.”
On September 3, the court restrained Kerala from proceeding with its Class 11 examinations beginning September 6 on account of the “alarming” situation posed by a surge in Covid-19 cases that posed a serious risk to the health of students. More than 300,000 students in the state are supposed to appear for the Class 11 examinations.
With the direction on Friday, the apex court disposed a petition filed by advocate A Rasoolshan, who argued the decision of the state to conduct offline examinations for Class 11 was creating tremendous mental stress among students and posed a serious risk to children as cases in the state were rising at an alarming rate.
Also, the court noted that the state had successfully conducted the Joint Engineering Examination (JEE) – Main 2021 from August 26 to September 2, National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for medical/dental admissions on September 11 and 12 and other engineering entrance examinations in the state that were all held physically involving hundreds of thousands of students.
“The authorities are conscious of their responsibilities. Last time when the grievance of holding physical examination was made before us, we did not have a convincing answer. Now the explanation has been given in the counter affidavit of the state. More than 7 lakh (700,000) students appeared in JEE and NEET. Even for APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, the state conducted engineering entrance examination. So long as Covid-19 protocols are followed we have no objection,” the bench observed.
“Examination in offline mode can be conducted by strictly adhering to all precautionary measures issued by state and Central governments in preventing further spread of Covid-19 pandemic,” the Kerala government told the Supreme Court through its affidavit filed last week. It further convinced the court that for students and those showing symptoms of Covid-19, separate rooms will be arranged along with PPE kits for students and invigilators.
Further, the state told the court that holding online examination will prejudice large number of students who have no access to laptops, desktops or even mobile phones and in many areas, the internet connection or mobile data was not available. “These students will never be able to write online examinations,” the state government said.
The decision to hold offline Class 11 examinations from September 6 to 27 was notified by the Kerala government on May 28. The state was in favour of holding offline Class 11 examinations as their marks count towards admission into higher educational courses, unlike CBSE or ICSE boards.
Disputing the assurance offered by the state government, the petitioner’s counsel Prashant Padmanbhan submitted to the court that number of students who appeared for NEET, JEE from Kerala were roughly around 80,000 and all of them being above 18 years had the opportunity to get vaccinated. The same was not true about Class 11 students, who are of tender age. He relied on news reports claiming that the spread of Covid-19 infection cannot be checked by wiping tables and chairs as there is potential of catching infection from the air.
The bench told the petitioner not to be rhetorical and adopt a different approach. “We are not willing to take this matter forward. The last examination they conducted was on September 2. They are taking all responsibilities with all seriousness,” the bench observed.
