The ‘one minute late rule’ (not allowing intermediate students into examination hall during the ongoing annual exams if they are late by even a minute) of Intermediate Board reached Telangana High Court on Tuesday, with an advocate challenging it by filing a PIL petition.
The Bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy will hear on Wednesday the petition seeking a direction to government to permit students turning up late at exam hall. Lawyer Rapolu Bhaskar, who filed the plea, requested that students entering exam hall late should be given three hours time to write the exam.
He contended that government should take steps to spread awareness among students’ and parents’ community about punctuality in reaching examination hall along with analysing as to how the issue of ‘coming late to the hall’ can be controlled. The petitioner requested the HC to instruct the government to initiate action against officials not permitting late-comers to the examination hall.
He sought a report from the government on the students who were not allowed to appear for exam due to delay in reaching the hall on time and the action taken against officers responsible for such instances. When the Bench assembled in the morning, Mr. Bhaskar made a mention of the PIL petition stating that students, who get delayed to exam hall because of traffic and other factors, were being put to great difficulty because of ‘one minute late rule’.
The Bench led by the CJ agreed to hear the matter and posted it to Wednesday. Several factors like family issues, traffic, unfamiliarity with location of the exam centres, mistakes in hall-ticket numbers, longer distances between students’ homes and exam centres were contributing to the delay of students to exam hall, the lawyer said in his plea. In some cases, ill-health could also be an issue impacting the student’s journey from home to the exam hall, he stated.
The circular issued by Board of Intermediate Education that students reaching exam hall by a minute should not be allowed inside was illegal and arbitrary, he contended. Turning away students from exam hall for the delay of one minute would drastically affect their future. The physical and mental stress might even drive them to end their lives, the petitioner said.
