E-Paper
Top court stays Kerala’s offline Class 11 exams amid ‘alarming’ Covid-19 crisis
The bench was hearing an appeal by a lawyer A Rasoolshan who lost before the Kerala High Court on August 27 and had approached the top court to stay the examination amid the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the state. The exams are scheduled from September 6 to 27.
Not willing to compromise with the safety of children in Kerala amid an “alarming” Covid-19 situation, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the decision to hold physical examinations for Class 11 students beginning Monday and demanded that the state government explain what scientific study was undertaken before putting children of tender age at such risk.
“There is an alarming situation in Kerala. With over 30,000 cases reported daily, the state alone accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Covid-19 cases reported in the country. Children of tender age cannot be exposed to any risk in this situation,” remarked a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar.
The bench was hearing an appeal by a lawyer A Rasoolshan who lost before the Kerala High Court on August 27 and had approached the top court to stay the examination amid the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the state. The exams are scheduled from September 6 to 27.
The concern of the petitioner was acknowledged by the bench. It said, “Prima facie, we find force in the submission made by the petitioner that the state government has not seriously considered the prevailing situation before deciding to conduct physical examination (for Class 11).” The Court issued notice on the petition to the Kerala government and put the examination on hold till September 13, the next date of hearing.
The state has been battling a serious crisis on the Covid-19 front with the past seven-day average of the test positivity rate (TPR) in Kerala recorded at over 18.5 per cent. More than 21,000 people have died so far in the state due to Covid-19 and in the past three days, the state has recorded more than 30,000 Covid-19 cases daily.
The Kerala government represented by advocate CK Sasi submitted that offline examinations for Class 10 and 12 students were successfully conducted in April. Recently, he pointed out that entrance examinations for professional courses were also held in the state. “Is the TPR then in April and now the same,” the bench asked, putting further questions to the state counsel on whether any scientific study was conducted before taking this decision.
“Can you assure us that not a single child will be infected? Even if one case gets reported, we will hold you accountable,” the bench remarked. Advocate Sasi said that such an assurance cannot be given. The bench in its order said, “As we could not get any satisfactory response from the state government, we grant interim relief staying the offline examination till the next date of hearing.” The bench directed the state government to file its response before September 13.
Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan who appeared for the petitioner informed the Court that children were under mental stress of appearing physically for the examinations. He stated that there was no vaccination yet for this age group.
On the bench were two judges having first-hand experience of serving in the Kerala High Court. Justice Ravikumar was a judge of Kerala High Court till his recent elevation to the Supreme Court on August 31. Justice Roy served as Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court from August 8, 2018 till his elevation to the Supreme Court in September 2019.
The bench remarked, “Kerala has one of the best medical infrastructures in the country. Despite this, the state has not been able to contain the number of cases (due to Covid-19).” The Court felt that allowing children from different parts of the state, who are yet to be vaccinated, to gather together at the examination centre could be a potential “super spreader” of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is not the first instance where Kerala has been hauled up by the top court for its potentially dangerous decisions to spread Covid-19. In July, the state government’s decision to relax lockdown restrictions in view of Bakrid festivities was challenged before the top court. The Court slammed the state’s decision as “extremely alarming” and said that if the decision of the state resulted in any untoward spread of the Covid-19 infection, any member of the public would be free to approach the Court after which action will be accordingly taken. As two days of restrictions got over by the date when the order was passed, the state government decided not to continue with further relaxation of lockdown curbs.
