Amid the floating speculations on the tenth-grade board exams in Tamil Nadu on whether the examinations would be held as per the government's schedule or would get deferred owing to spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Madras High court bench has, on Monday, postponed the hearing to June 11, by keeping the suspense alive on what's next on the board exams.

The state government has been preparing to conduct the board exams as per the schedule issued by the School Education Department. According to the schedule, the board exams for tenth-grade students would be commencing on June 15 and would run till June 25. With the view of that, the state government has issued the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines for the students and teachers appearing for the exams.

However, various stakeholders and opposition parties in the state have demanded the state government to postpone the exams in the wake of peaking COVID-19 cases as the students and teachers would face a high risk. The teachers' association has moved the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Madras High Court, which came to the hearing on Monday -June 8, before the bench comprised of Justices Vineet Kothari and Suresh Kumar.

The High court bench has stormed the state government on its necessity of conducting the board exams amid the rapid spread. The bench asked the government on pushing 9 lakh students and 3 lakh teachers into a critical state. By citing that its the matter of lives of students, the high court asserted that it can't permit the state government to roll out the exams as per its schedule and ordered the government to disclose its argument on conducting exams in the second week of July by 2.30 pm.

After the court resumed the hearing by 2.30 pm, state's Attorney General Vijay Narayan appeared in court and put forth the argument during which he said that the current schedule is the appropriate time to conduct the exams as the COVID-19 cases are expected to peak in coming months and the cases would soar high in October and November and added that over 2 lakh people would be affected by the virus in July and deferring exams would add more risks for the students.

The government stated that it would arrange safety measures for the students as per the guidelines of the Central government for which the bench asked who would be held responsible if the students got infected for the virus and noted that the government has no necessity to conduct the board exams at this juncture and asked the government to think of scheduling the exams by the second week of July.

After the state government asked additional time to disclose the report, the court has adjourned the hearing on June 11, during which it would possibly pronounce its verdict on whether to conduct or postpone the exams and lakhs of students and teachers are waiting for the answer and verdict from the High court which, if deferred, would be the third deferment for the board exams in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak.

JACTO GEO organization has called the government not to play with the lives of the students. Amid the hearing, Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Sengottaiyan has tabled the meet with Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and held a discussion about the High court's scathing response over conducting the board exams as per the government's schedule. Earlier, the teachers' association has said that 'many students are stranded in other districts, and it's mandatory that they should have revision classes before appearing for exams which are not possible currently and appealed to the government to postpone the exams'. At the current state, the ball is in the government's court and it has to play well by considering the lives of students. Will it play well or make foul?

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