CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan to hold supplementary examinations for Class XI students across the state who have failed in more than one subject to enable them clear arrears and qualify for Class XII.
Referring to Clause 3 of the Assessment and Evaluation Practices classifying the students who failed in one subject under ‘compartment’ and more than one subject into ‘essential repeat’, Justice M Dhandapani observed that failure should not be the basis to create a class within itself, which is an inequality and a direct affront on Article 14 of the Constitution.
The order was passed recently on a batch of petitions filed by students who failed in more than one subject in 2022-23 and were not allowed to take the compartment examination. The judge noted that Article 14 warrants equal treatment to be meted out to all students irrespective of the number of subjects in which they have failed.
“Therefore, as a one-time measure, this court directs KV Sangathan to conduct supplementary examination for all the students, throughout Tamil Nadu, who failed in more than one subject, to enable them to come out successful and get promoted to Class XII for pursuing their studies,” he ordered.
The KV Sangathan was further directed to hold the supplementary examinations within three weeks.
Pointing out that equality is adumbrated in the Constitution, he said the court feels the interests of all the students should be taken into consideration for the purpose of promotion to the next higher standard without reference to the number of subjects in which a student had failed as it is the life of the students that is at stake.
The judge made it clear that the order is confined to the present petitions and should not be quoted as precedence in the future.