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The Madras High Court while allowing a plea of a class 10 student who was not allowed to pass the examination on his failure to satisfy the attendance criteria observed that the “education authorities need to show more sympathy and understanding, while dealing with the students, particularly during this pandemic period”.

The Single Judge bench of Justice N Anand Venkatesh further observed that that “There is already a surge in the number of cases before the Psychiatrists to whom children are taken for counselling during this pandemic period. The children are facing a new problem and their energy is getting dissipated by confining them inside the house. This has been going on for more than one year and the society needs to attend to this problem by being more kind with the children and not to add more pressure on them”.

The case before the Court was that due to the Pandemic situation, the Government took a policy decision to declare as “passed” all the 10th standard students. The school in which the petitioner’s son was studying while submitting the list of candidates, left out the name of the son of the petitioner and as a result of the same, he did not get the advantage of the policy decision of the Government. 

In view of the continuation of the Pandemic, the Government has again taken a decision to declare all the students studying in 9th, 10th and 11th standards as “passed” by virtue of G.O.No.48 dated February 25, 2021. The petitioner, therefore, wanted to take advantage of this Government Order and at least get his son declared as “passed” for the academic year 2020-21.

According to the petitioner, the school had already informed the District Educational Officer, Uthammapalayam, Theni, that the son of the petitioner was left out from the list and his name should be added to the list of students, who will be declared as “passed” by virtue of the Government Order. 

In spite of this letter sent by the school, there was no response from the official respondents and therefore, the petitioner made a fresh representation to the concerned authorities on March 10, 2021. Since the same did not evoke any response, the petitioner filed a petition before the High Court.

The Court observed that a careful reading of the government order portion shows that the only requirement that needs to be satisfied is that the concerned students must be enrolled with the school. 

“It is seen from the typed set of papers that already the 6th respondent school by letter dated 02.03.2021 informed the official respondents that the son of the petitioner is studying in their school and his name has been left out from the nominal roll and a request has been made to add his name in the nominal roll. This letter given by the 6th respondent satisfies the requirement of the Government order”, observed the Court.

The Court said that the Government order clearly contemplates all the students to be declared as 'pass' and the only requirement is that their names must find place in the nominal roll that is submitted by the concerned School. The son of the petitioner satisfies this requirement and the same is clear from the letter dated March 2, 2021 given by the respondent School.

CASE TITLE: Dr Suresh Kumar vs The Director