The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday asked the State government whether it can justify its policy of promoting only regular/fresher students of second year pre-university (II PU) courses without holding exams and not applying the same policy for private candidates and repeaters, for whom the government proposes to hold exams when the COVID-19 situation improves.
If the government can hold exams for nearly one lakh repeaters and private candidates registered for the II PU exams for 2021, why not the exams be held for the regular/fresher students also, the court asked.
A division bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Hanchate Sanjeevkumar made these observations orally while ordering issuance of notice to the government on a PIL petition, filed by S.V. Singre Gowda, the managing trustee of Gnana Mandira Education Trust, Bengaluru.
The petitioner has complained that the policy adopted by the government to promote II PU students is discriminatory in nature as freshers/regulars registered for exams in 2021 were being promoted based on certain parameters, but the same benefit was denied for repeaters and private candidates registered for the exams. He has also questioned conducting of II PU exams only for repeaters and private candidates.
If regular/fresher students can be promoted on the basis of SSLC and I PUC marks, then why the same standard could not be applied to other categories of students, the bench asked while asking the government to clarify its stand.
