The Supreme Court of India briefly, but surely heard the matter of Kerala plus one exam 2021 in the court proceedings today. However, the matter did not reach a conclusion. Instead, the court has asked the petitioners to take the matter to the state high court, since the hearing today was only on cancellation or conduct of class 12 exams. The Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE) Kerala had announced earlier this month, that they will hold exams for plus one, that is class 11 students, from September 6, 2021. The Kerala Government, represented by Advocate G Prakash was involved in the Supreme Court’s hearing today.
Prior to the hearing regarding Kerala’s Plus One exam, Advocate Nazki representing the AP government tried to justify the AP government’s decision of holding Class 12 exams by presenting statistics of the infrastructure available for conducting physical exams in the state. However, the Justices hearing the case were far from impressed. “We need this information on affidavit and that this info was available before filing the earlier affidavit”, the top court said to the AP state government.
Read: AP Inter Exams 2021: What happened in SC hearing today? Will exam be held or not?
Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheswari commenced the hearing at 11.00 AM today.
Following the AP hearing, Adv Prashant Padmanabhan, representing the Kerala board students against holding the Class 11 exams stated to the top court, “We do not want the examination”. The top court then ruled to the Kerala Counsel Advocate G Prakash that a similar decision applies to the Kerala government too. “For Kerala the date of Sept is unacceptable”, Justice Khanwilkar ruled.
While a plea against the Kerala government’s decision was raised in the Supreme Court, the Kerala government in response, submitted an affidavit in favour of conducting the exam earlier this week.
Initially, when the top court asked the Kerala Counsel as to when the results will be declared and how the admissions will be conducted, the Kerala advocate seemed to face technical glitches leading to a gap in response to the SC’s interrogation. “Please submit a plan. Your affidavit is not acceptable to me”, Justice Khanwilkar added.
While technical glitches continued from the Kerala Advocate’s end, Justice Khanwilkar stated that the matters regarding Kerala Plus One exams 2021 and Andhra Pradesh Class 12 exams 2021 will be heard tomorrow in the afternoon. “If you can work out a solution do it by tomorrow and if there is any fatality we will hold you responsible”, the top court ruled to the Kerala Counsel Advocate G Prakash.
Justice Maheswari clearly indicated that the class 11 exams has no bearing on future admissions and hence, they can be held later by the Kerala State Government. The Plus One exams are scheduled to be held in September 2021. Class 11 students will appear for the Class 12 exams next year. Thus the Class 11 exams do not have any bearing on future prospects, the top court ruled.
While promoted students in Kerala are already studying for Class 12, conducting the Class 11 exams now will be a distraction to the students, the student counsel of Kerala plead to the top court. “Not even one day’s offline class was there. We need three months for the 11th exams at least”. the Kerala student counsel stated. In response to this, Justice Khanwilkar stated “You cannot say give me three months. If you have not studied for the whole year we cannot help you”.
Justice Khanwilkar adjourned the hearing by stating that the matter will be sent to the High Court of Kerala and the final decision will be taken by the High Court. “We will not decide 11th std exams. we are only looking at 12th”, the top judge ruled before closing the hearing.
For detailed analysis of today’s court proceedings, read: Supreme Court Decision on State Board Exams 2021: AP Inter Exams Will Be Allowed Only If State Convinces There Will Be No Fatalities, Kerala Plus One Exams Matter To Be Heard in High Court
