In a blow to TN govt, HC says no all-pass sans arrear exams

CHENNAI: In a major setback to the Tamil Nadu government's decision to grant all-pass to several lakh arrear-holding college students citing the pandemic, the Madras high court said no state university can declare results without conducting examinations either online or offline.
The court also made it clear that universities were free to conduct arrear exams despite the government order cancelling them.Wondering how the state could compel universities to cancel examinations with a GO, a division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice R Hemalatha said exams could now be conducted either online or offline or a combination of both.
The case was then posted for further hearing on January 11.
The HC passed the interim order on Tuesday, refusing to accept the state's contention that the exams were cancelled in the interest of students and to safeguard lives. As to the allegation that some universities have already declared results, the bench directed such institutes not to proceed till further orders.
The issue pertains to a batch of pleas moved by former vice-chancellor of Anna University E Balagurusamy, advocate Ramkumar Adityan and others challenging the GO cancelling arrear exams.
When the plea came up for hearing, the UGC clarified that students who have not cleared backlogs would not be eligible for even a course completion certificate.
Earlier, the state department of higher education filed an affidavit justifying cancelling the exams, saying the decision was made only to alleviate distresses faced by the student community due to Covid-19.
Denying the argument that such an order would amount to discrimination among students, the department said, "The decision would not demoralise meritorious students as only moderated minimum pass mark is awarded to arrear students... As this situation was unprecedented, students had left their belongings, textbooks, notebooks and laptops in their hostel. Therefore, they had no access to their study material."