Extend exam duration for student with chronic health condition: Karnataka High Court

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has declined to consider a 16-year-old student’s request to issue directions to the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) to treat his performance in the preparatory examination as the final one as he is a chronic patient of ‘Osteogenesis Imperfecta’.

But it has directed the Board to extend to the petitioner and other similarly circumstanced candidates an additional two hours during the final exams of 10th standard. The discretion lies with the authorities to grant extension keeping in view the degree of disability, the court said.

Justice Krishna S Dixit passed the order after hearing a petition of a student of a Bengaluru school. The petitioner is a chronic patient of ‘Osteogenesis Imperfecta’ with 75 per cent physical disability. The disease mainly affects the bones which will break easily. 

Justice Dixit said that according to the provisions of the KSEEB Act, the Board cannot dispense with the final exam whatever the circumstances. At the same time, the court cannot turn Nelson’s Eye to the sufferings of the students who are stuck with this disease that lasts for life, the judge said.