The Madras High Court has on Thursday ordered the Tamil Nadu government to conduct the arrear exams for the college students within eight weeks. The new order has come after there were multiple episodes of debates over the government's directive of canceling the arrear exams in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The order from the state's top judicial body has come after hearing the petitions including those filed by former Anna University's Vice-Chancellor Balagurusamy and advocate Ram Kumar Adithan. The petitions had unveiled the drive of challenging the state government's order to cancel the arrear exams of the college students. On August 26, 2020, the state government had canceled the arrear exams for students in Arts, Science, Engineering, and Computer Application programmes, except for those in their final years, by citing the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The government has said that all students who have arrears, except in their final years, would be declared pass. While the order had poured relief for the students, it had caught more objections from the educationalists. Several people including Balagurusamy and Ram Kumar Adithan had moved their petitions to the court against the government order and in his plea, Adithan called the order canceling the arrear exams illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory, and against the principle of natural justice. 

Adithan had also said that the state government's announcement will lower the standards of education of the students and the universities and has demoralized the students who have worked hard to pass their exams. The High court had probed the petition and during the previous hearing, the court has condemned the Tamil Nadu state government's decision of declaring the students with arrear exams pass without conducting the exams. 

The hearing had again come to the High Court bench on Thursday during which the state government had admitted to the court that the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is out of control in the state and the government has also notified that the exams will be conducted online. Recording the submissions of the state government, the court had ordered the government to conduct the arrear exams within eight weeks and it also has advised the government to consult with the University Grants Commission on the guidelines to be followed for these exams. 

In the albeit of the COVID-19 second wave, the court is affirmed that the arrear exams should be conducted in the state, and with the new order, the students would be writing the arrear exams online. According to reports, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan would be meeting the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court on Thursday to brief him about the COVID-19 situation in the state.

Tamil Nadu has been witnessing a severe second wave of COVID-19 by reporting heavy caseloads. For the first time since the outbreak, Tamil Nadu has reported 7,819 cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike. According to the state health department, Tamil Nadu has reported 9,54,948 COVID-19 cases so far as of Wednesday of which 54,315 are active, 8,87,663 have been discharged, and 12,970 had succumbed to the viral infection.