HC asks MHA, education dept to decide plea for college students to stay in hostels during exams

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to consider the representation of a parents body seeking directions to allow final year students of various universities to stay in hostels or paying guest accommodations, closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during the exams.

Justice Jayant Nath said let the authorities treat the writ petition as a representation and deal with the same as per law.

"Appropriate orders may be passed and communicated to the petitioner (parents body)," the high court said.

The court passed the order while disposing of a petition filed by Juvvadi Sagar Rao, founder of Telangana Parents Foundation, seeking direction to the authorities to decide his representation.

The plea also sought directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Higher Education and Department of Health and Family Welfare to take measures for conducting final year and entrance exams for higher studies without causing trouble to the students.

The petition, filed through advocates Sravan Kumar & R Balaji, said that due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, government, private hostels and PG accommodations are closed except few government university run hostels.

This has been causing immense difficulty for the final year students of various universities belongs to rural areas and who stay in the private hostels or PG accommodations, it said.

It said Rao has made a representation to the Union of India seeking relaxation of lockdown restrictions allowing the final year students to stay in hostels and PG accommodation during the final year exams and it was transferred to the Department of Higher Education for appropriate action.

It said since the exams are scheduled to be conducted in September end and October by the universities on the direction of the Department of Higher Education/ University Grants Commission, the representation may be considered and appropriate guidelines may be passed by the authorities in the interest of lakhs of final year students in the country.

Besides that, various entrance exams are also scheduled to be conducted for the admission of different higher education courses, it said, adding that a large number of girl students are in distress due to non-availability of accommodation in the urban areas for attending the exams.

"Now the examination schedule has been issued by various universities, it has become very difficult for the final year students to find accommodation during the present COVID-19 circumstances," the plea said.

It sought that in these circumstances, government and private hostels and PG accommodations may be allowed to accommodate the final year students so that they can write the exams by taking all the precautions.