CHENNAI: Following recent attempts by college students to join virtual court proceedings on petitions challenging the government decision to cancel arrears examinations, a section of students on Tuesday went one step further by webcasting the proceedings live on YouTube for a few hours.
The live webcast, under the subject “Arrears,” was taken down after thousands of students began accessing it and the media started taking note of it. Gaining access, under the guise of an advocate, to the virtual court proceedings conducted on Microsoft Teams platform, the students shared the proceedings using cast option on YouTube.
On November 20, a Division Bench of Justices Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha began the hearing, when at least 250 students gained access to the proceedings and started shouting, forcing the Benech to suspend the proceedings.
On Tuesday, the court, taking note of the earlier disruption, restricted entry to the platform, permitting only advocates who had been listed for each case. Even the media which usually covered court proceedings were not allowed entry.
Censuring students who webcast the proceedings, the Bench observed, “In the light of the fact that this virtual system is being abused by certain persons, we are shifting the arrears challenge petitions to physical hearing.” The Bench also warned the students of contempt proceedings for the live webcast.
It passed interim directions by restraining all universities in the State from declaring an ‘all pass’ result when arrears exams were not conducted, either online or offline mode or a combination of both. The Bench refused to accept the State’s arguments that the examinations were cancelled keeping in mind of the safety of students during the pandemic.
Counsel for University Grants Commission told the Bench on Tuesday that cancellation of the examinations was in violation of its guidelines. One of the petitioners also said that a few universities, especially Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and University of Madras, were releasing results without conducting examinations.
The Bench observed that universities across the State are free to conduct their examinations through online or offline mode or a combination of both, despite the government passing an order on cancelling the examinations. “Let the State government permit the universities to conduct arrears examinations, if they want to do so. The choice has to be left to them,” the Bench said, adjourning the plea to January 11.