The Madras High Court, on Wednesday, wondered how the state government can announce that students need not write arrear exams. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had refused to accept the order passed by the government of Tamil Nadu cancelling arrear exams for students who have already paid the fees. 

According to reports, a bench consisting of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice R Hemalatha was hearing the pleas filed by former Vice Chancellor of Anna University E Balagurusamy and advocate Ramkumar Adityan against the state government’s order of cancelling arrear exams. Asking how students can expect to be declared ‘pass’ without even writing the exams, the bench said that if students approached it in support of the government order, it wouldn’t hesitate to dive deeper into their academic credentials right from the board exams. The bench agreed that the order passed by the state government is in clear violation of the AICTE’s guidelines. 

The AICTE had told the court that it cannot award degrees to students who had not cleared arrears and that the order passed by the government of Tamil Nadu is against the norms stipulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The Council further told the court that it had not issued any exemption for students with backlogs and that it cannot award degrees to students who have not cleared the backlogs. 

Balagurusamy had petitioned the court seeking cancellation of the Government Order passed on August 26 by the government of Tamil Nadu and had called it ‘illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory and against the principal (sic) of natural justice’. In his petition, he alleged that the announcement by the state government has demoralised students who have worked hard to pass their exams and that this would lower the education standard of the students and the university. “The performance in examination gives confidence and satisfaction to the students and is a reflection of competence, performance and credibility that is necessary for the global acceptability,” his plea stated.