How can govt do away with arrear exams, asks Madras HC – Times of India

CHENNAI: Wondering how college students can be declared pass without exams, the Madras high court has said it could not take a stand that is different from that of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) which had already refused to accept the government order (GO) cancelling arrear exams in Tamil Nadu in view of the pandemic.
“It is saddening that several students who have passed engineering are delivering food working for online delivery platforms. How can students expect to be declared a pass without even appearing for the examinations?” asked a division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha on Wednesday.
The judges made the observation on two separate PILs moved by former Anna University vice chancellor E Balagurusamy and advocate Ramkumar Adityan challenging the government decision to cancel the arrear examinations.
The AICTE, through an affidavit, made it clear that the GO passed by the Tamil Nadu government cancelling arrear exams for college students was against UGC norms and it could not award degrees to students who had not cleared backlogs.
Anticipating that students might also approach the court in support of the GO, the bench said, in such case they would have to face the consequence as the court would go into their academic credentials right from their board exam.
According to AICTE, it has not issued any exemption for students from appearing for the examinations and pursuing their studies for the next year without being assessed by exams. Degrees cannot be awarded to a student who has failed to clear a large number of arrears. This is not acceptable in the industry too,” M Sundresan, south regional officer of the council said.
The council added that the claim of the state that the GO cancelling arrear exams and declaring all the students who have paid exam fee as pass has been made as per the guidelines of the AICTE is wrong.