Telangana High Court on Friday directed the State government to postpone the ongoing SSC exams scheduled to be held from March 23 to 30, in the backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases.
Two exams have already been completed and there will not be any change in the third exam scheduled for Saturday. The deferred exams (from March 23 to 30) should be rescheduled, a division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy said after hearing a PIL seeking deferment of the exams due to coronavirus.
As of now, there will be no change in the SSC exams to be held from March 31 to April 6. If the situation deteriorates, even those exams should be deferred and rescheduled for a future date, the bench ordered. Though the government had the discretion to decide upon rescheduling the exams, the HC hoped that the ‘government would be alive to the great danger being posed by coronavirus in the State’.
The PIL was filed by a private educational institute faculty member M. Bala Krishna stating that it was not fair to conduct SSC exams while the coronavirus was spreading and the Central board exams like CBSE and ICSE have already been deferred. The petition was moved as lunch motion and taken up as an urgent matter by the bench.
The petitioner’s counsel K. Pavan Kumar contended that congregation of students, teachers and parents at the exam centres would unnecessarily expose them to possible spread of COVID-19. Despite this, the government was going ahead with the exams risking the lives of students, the lawyer said. Seeking to know why the State government was conducting the exams while similar Central board exams were postponed, the bench initially asked Advocate General B.S. Prasad to secure instructions from government on the matter by lunch break. When the AG said the government had taken all precautions and prepared to hold the exams, the bench reminded him that authorities imposed prohibitive orders in Karimnagar town while the Centre government decided to observe ‘Janata curfew’ on Sunday.
“Life of our children is important. Where is the question of career when the life is at risk,” the bench observed. “If one among 30 students confined to a single room has the virus, all others would get infected,” the bench noted. Citing an advisory issued by Union HRD Ministry, the bench observed that even if the government had taken all measures to prevent spread of coronavirus, the health and safety of children, a potential victim of the virus, needs to be safeguarded at the highest level. “Therefore it would be unwise on the part of the State to compel students to write the exams during pandemic period,” the bench said in its order. The bench observed that the country was undergoing second stage of COVID-19 pandemic and was about to enter third stage. The virus has devastated Iran and Italy. “In this highly charged atmosphere, it would not be advisable to compel students to travel from their homes to examination centres,” the bench said.
