KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday ordered cancellation of the B-Tech semester Ist and IIIrd examinations conducted by the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram through physical mode amidst pandemic. The court also restrained the university from conducting the rest of the exams scheduled to be held in the coming days. The exam has been commenced on July 9.
Justice Amit Rawal issued the order on the petition filed by Sagar A R, a fourth semester B Tech student and seven others challenging the decision of the University.
The counsel for the University has submitted that those students, who are unable to take the offline examinations due to Covid related issues will be permitted to take the next examinations which are conducted by the University for the very same semester treating the examinations so attempted by them as their first chance. However, the court rejected the stand of the university.
Rajesh Kumar TK, counsel for the petitioners contended that the offline examinations being conducted from July 9 for the first and third semester were against the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations. According to them, the UGC had ordered that only final year semester examinations need be conducted offline and other semester examinations should be conducted online only.
Their Fundamental Right of Equality before Law guaranteed under Article 14 was violated as the university decided to conduct B.Tech Semester VIII examinations online and the Semester I and IIIrd examinations in physical mode with utter disregard to the concerns of the health of the students. 152 colleges affiliated to the university and around 29000 students studying in these colleges.
Conducting the examination involves a huge amount of travel, huge use of public transport which are not possible in the present state of affairs. The usage of public transport for students to travel to examination centres also causes not only health issues but a serious logistics issue as only 50 per cent capacity is allowed in public transport as of date. There is no mechanism to avoid gatherings before the examination and after the examination putting a serious health issue. Therefore, conducting exams through offline mode will entail a huge risk of transmission of the virus, submitted the petitioner.