SC unlikely to allow Andhra to hold Class 12 Exams

The Supreme Court on Thursday told Andhra Pradesh state government that it will not allow the state to conduct Class 12 exams as they are not convinced of the precautionary measures taken by the state. The Apex Court has said that unless they are sure that there will be no fatality due to Covid, it will not allow them to conduct the examinations.

A special bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari, which posed tough questions to the Andhra Pradesh government on its decision to hold Class 12 board examinations, asked the standing counsel for the state Mahfooz A Nazki to place before the court the snapshot of the file giving reasons to hold the test.

“We are not satisfied with the precautionary measures you will be taking for holding the exams. We are not convinced with the mechanism you have devised. Unless we are satisfied that you are able to conduct the examination without any fatality, we will not allow you to hold the examination”, the bench said.

“We have to see the aspect of compensation in case of any fatality during the examination. Some States have given Rs 1 crore compensation for death due to COVID. We can look at things through that aspect”, it said.

The top court is hearing a plea seeking directions to state governments not to hold board exams in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The court flagged its concern of accommodating 5,19,510 students in classrooms for the exams and said the state government says that maximum of 15 to 18 students will be in one class.

“If we go by your figure, then for 15 students per class, you will need 34,644 rooms and if we take 18 students per class then you will need 28,862 rooms. Tell us from where you get all these rooms”, the bench said.

The examinations should not be held just for the sake of holding one. There will be more than a lakh people involved in the process including 34,000 supervisors for each rooms. “We should be concerned about the safety,” added the Court.

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