The Supreme Court on September 3, Friday stayed the Kerala government’s decision to hold in-person exams for class 11 students. The exams, which were set to begin on Monday, September 6, have been stayed for a week, with the Supreme Court terming the COVID-19 situation in Kerala “alarming”. The Supreme Court bench, led by Justice AM Khanwilkar, observed that Kerala currently accounts for more than 70% of the COVID-19 cases in the country, with around 35,000 cases being recorded daily, adding that children of tender age cannot be exposed to risk of infection, Live Law reported.
The bench was hearing a special leave petition challenging the Kerala government’s decision to conduct the exams. Representing the petitioner, Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan argued that holding physical exams amid the high number of COVID-19 cases was a huge risk, as children are unvaccinated.
The bench was hearing a special leave petition challenging the Kerala government’s decision to conduct the exams. Representing the petitioner, Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan argued that holding physical exams amid the high number of COVID-19 cases was a huge risk, as children are unvaccinated. Around 3 lakh children are expected to appear for the exams scheduled from September 6 to 27, he noted.
Justice CT Ravikumar, who is also part of the bench, observed that the exams could lead to super spreading, with students from different regions getting together at the exam centres. Justice Khanwilkar told the state’s counsel that the state will be held accountable if even a single student is infected, according to LiveLaw. While the state’s counsel submitted that SSLC and class 12 exams were successfully held recently in April with adequate safety protocols, the bench questioned if the Kerala government had taken into account the change in the COVID-19 situation in the state since then.
Justice CT Ravikumar, newly sworn-in judge from Kerala, remarked that to allow students from different parts of the state to mix together in exam centres result into a superspread of COVID.#Kerala #COVID19 #SupremeCourt
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 3, 2021
This comes on a day when Kerala's overall COVID-19 cases crossed the 41 lakh mark and many districts in the state are facing a shortage of vaccines. Kerala has been reporting more than 30,000 cases daily for the past few days. The test positivity rate (TPR) was found to be 18.41% after testing of 1,74,307 samples in the last 24 hours, according to a state government release issued on Thursday, September 2.
State Health Minister Veena George on Friday said the Covishield vaccine stock is completely over in at least six districts and that the government has asked for more vaccine doses from the Union government. Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur districts are facing vaccine shortage and only 1.4 lakh doses are remaining in the state's reserve, she said. However, all districts have limited stock of Covaxin, the Minister said.
"We have already requested the Centre to provide more doses of vaccine at the earliest," Veena said in a statement.
The state, which recorded the country's first coronavirus case in early 2020, reported 32,097 new COVID-19 infections and 188 deaths on Thursday, which pushed the total infection count to 41,22,133 and the fatalities to 21,149.
(With PTI inputs)