Nagpur: Students appearing for the
‘All India Trade Test’, conducted by the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the country, have approached the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, complaining about being forced to give the offline exam.
A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Zaka Haq on Wednesday granted a stay on the test results, while allowing respondents to conduct the exam itself. The bench also issued notices to respondents, including Union minister of skill development through its director general, National Council of Vocational Training through member secretary, director and joint director of State Vocational Education Directorate, and principal secretary of State Skill development Department. They were asked to reply within two weeks.
Petitioners — Selaindra Gujar and Kunal Humane — through counsel Anand Parchure and Tejas Deshpande contended that they were being forced to appear for offline exams, even as online version was implemented long back.
According to them, the Union ministry on June 26, 2015, issued communication to all states expressing its intention to conduct online test for semester patterns from January 2016. On April 3, the ministry released the programme for the ‘All India Trade Test’, following which the state directorate informed all its regional offices about conducting exams scheduled in July.
Subsequently, a list of centres was published by the directorate for the second and fourth semester exams, with Nagpur getting over 60 centres. The joint director, however, then asked ITI college principals about any inconvenience faced by students in online mode. After receiving several objections, the directorate granted permission to some colleges to conduct the test in offline mode in Nagpur, Nashik and Pune.
The petitioners then lodged a complaint with the directorate, that while most of the centres were allowed to conduct online test, some were granted permission to hold it offline, which would leave them at a disadvantage. After getting no response, they approached the HC.
