The Madras High Court on Wednesday refused to pass any interim order on a public interest litigation that had challenged a decision taken by the State government to cancel the Class XII examinations this year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The court ordered notice to the State government and sought its response by June 23.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said that they would probably not entertain the PIL petition itself and therefore there was no question of granting any interim order in the case. The court could not interfere in a decision that was within the domain of the School Education department, they said.
Advocate B. Ramkumar Adityan of Thoothukudi had filed the petition on the ground that the second wave of COVID-19 was easing out rapidly and hence the government could conduct the examinations within a month or two. Stating that the present batch of Class XII students were those whose Class XI exams also got cancelled last year, he insisted on conducting the Class XII exams.
“I respectfully submit that average and below average students… will alone welcome the decision of the fourth respondent (Department of School Education) to cancel the examinations. The meritorious students will always wish to write the examinations to score marks and prove their ability. At least for them, the fourth respondent has to conduct the examinations,” the petitioner said.
He also said that some students who had not performed well in the quarterly and half-yearly examinations might excel in the final year public examinations through hard work and some might have intentionally taken those mid-term examinations lightly in the hope of performing well in the final examinations. The hopes of such students would get dashed because of the government’s decision to cancel the public examinations this year, he added.
