Supreme Court on 12th examination: Will hold state government responsible even for a single fatality

The Supreme Court said on Thursday that Andhra Pradesh Government will be held responsible if there is even one fatality during the holding sessions of class 12 examination next week. The court also added that a compensation amount of Rs.1 Crore will be given in the events of any deaths.

A 2 member bench of Justice Dinesh Maeshwari and AM Khanwilkar said during the session that, “If there is even one fatality we may order compensation amounting to ₹ 1 crore… when other boards had cancelled, why (does) Andhra Pradesh want to show it is different?”.

The court further added that other states are giving 1 crore as compensation to the families of those who have died. and they may keep the same amount for Andhra Pradesh as well. They also asked the state why are they so desperate to hold class 12 examination when there are new and aggressive variants of Covid-19.

They then added, “It was the question of the health of every student… not only about the class 12 conducting examination. We are not convinced about your plans”

The court later ordered the state to submit a filing notices that can identify the individual or government body that took the decision for holding sessions examinations. The court will hearing will continue tomorrow again.

Later the Class 12 examinations held by the state board of education have been cancelled in 21 states because of the ongoing pandemic. “One issue… in your affidavit you said students will be divided – 15 to 18 students in one room. Have you worked out the number of rooms needed? You require 34,634 rooms… where will you get so many rooms? Are you going to have exams in the open?” an unconvinced court asked today.

The state replied with 34,000 rooms that have been identified and around 50,000 non-teaching and teaching staff had been vaccinated and were ready to conduct the examinations.