HC: All-pass fiat is uninformed political decision

HC: All-pass fiat is uninformed political decision

Sureshkumar.k@timesgroup.com

Chennai:08.04.2021

The state government’s order to cancel all arrear examinations of all college students is nothing but an uninformed political decision, said the Madras high court, making it clear that it is not acceptable to the court.

“It is inconceivable that a whole mass of students will be certificated to have qualified in a system without having basic knowledge in respect of key aspects thereof,” said the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Wednesday.

“There is no doubt that lakhs of students who had thought that they had cleared the particular course after writing their final semester may have to be held back because they did not clear previous papers – at the same time, unqualified persons cannot be certified to have qualified to pursue professional courses or even higher studies,” the judges said.

The bench directed the Tamil Nadu government and the UGC to put their heads together to suggest any ameliorative measures that could be taken by way of an examination or some other method.

The court passed the order while hearing pleas moved by advocate Ramkumar Aditiyan and former vice-chancellor of Anna University E Balaguruswamy challenging the government order.

When the plea came up for hearing on Wednesday, advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that the exemption had been granted only to arts and science courses since the regulatory bodies of other professional courses like medicine, engineering and law refused sanction.

Recording the submissions, the bench said, “what appears to have been done by the state is all those who wanted to rewrite their exams as deemed to have passed without conducting any form of test or evaluation.”

Referring to UGC guidelines, the bench said, “it does not provide for such a scenario, nor is it acceptable to the court.”

The court then directed the state to produce the fullest particulars on a university-to-university basis or, if possible, on a college-to-college basis as to the number of such applicants and the number of those who have been found qualified.

The court then adjourned the pleas to April 15 with a direction totheUGCandthestate to indicate what would serve the interest of the relevant students in the best way without compromising on the sanctity of the system, notwithstanding the pandemic.

The bench said the state government’s decision does not adhere to UGC guidelines not is it acceptable to the court