A public interest litigation was filed in the Karnataka High Court on Monday by a representative of the National Student Union of India (NSUI) challenging the upcoming Karnataka Common Entrance Test (K-CET) exams – conducted for admissions to engineering and medical professional courses in the state – at a time a high number of COVID-19 cases are being reported.
"Conducting the exams during these testing times will create widespread panic and put the lives of students, teachers, parents and staff at risk," the PIL stated.
The K-CET exams are scheduled for July 30 and 31. NSUI's National Secretary Eric Stephen’s PIL in the High Court has asked for the exams to be deferred to a later date. Over 1.94 lakh have registered for the entrance examination.
"A similar examination happened in Kerala and there were students and parents who were found to be positive for coronavirus. NEET exams were postponed to September. If a national examination was deferred, what is stopping the state government from deferring the exams?" Eric Stephen, the petitioner who is also NSUI in-charge for Karnataka and Goa, told TNM.
The petitioner argued that 2,000 students will be travelling to Karnataka from other states and 30 others will be travelling from abroad to write the examinations. The students will be exempted from quarantine and will be allowed to stay in the state for a period of 96 hours to write the examinations. Currently, Karnataka mandates a 14-day home quarantine for travellers coming in from all other states. However, there are exceptions for business travellers, transit travellers, and special category travellers.
The petitioner also pointed out that asymptomatic patients of coronavirus are also being allowed to appear for the examinations in a separate room.
Eric questioned the decision to hold the examinations when the number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka is rising rapidly.
Karnataka reported 5,199 COVID-19 cases on Sunday taking the total active cases in the state to 58,417. Bengaluru has 33,156 active COVID-19 cases as on Sunday as well as 12,459 containment zones.
NSUI activists held a protest outside the Karnataka Governor's residence last week questioning the decision to conduct K-CET exams and allowing COVID-19 patients to appear for it.