A petition seeking to challenge the state government’s decision to conduct the Secondary School Leaving Certificate(SSLC) exams was dismissed by the Karnataka High Court on Monday. The Karnataka government has decided to conduct the SSLC exams for students of class 10 in physical mode from 19 July.
Hearing public interest litigation(PIL), a two-judge bench of the Karnataka HC, comprising of justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Hanchate Sanjeev Kumar, termed the PIL as lacking in merit. The bench further noted that the precautionary arrangements with regards to the pandemic had been made by the state government and observed that it was in the student’s interests to conduct the examination. “That is in the interest of the student. It is for his profession, vocations,” the court noted.
The petitioner, SV Singre Gowda, belonging to the Gana Mandira Education Trust, had earlier argued that the Class 10 students can get infected with COVID-19 if they are forced to appear for the physical SSLC exams. However, the HC noted that neither the government nor parents would force a student to appear for the exams.
In comparison with the II PUC exam which had been cancelled, the two-judge bench noted that for the PUC exam, data were available for evaluation of students. “However, as far as the SSLC students are concerned, there is no such data,” it added
Representing the state government, the Advocate General for Karnataka, Prabhuling Navadgi, told the court that measures suggested by the HC last year had been made part of the standard operating procedure(SOP) for the exams. He further said that social distancing measures would be practised at the exam centre with only 12 students to be allowed in one classroom for the exams.
