The Madras High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on Wednesday, March 1. The PIL was seeking orders for the Government of Tamil Nadu to award marks to students who passed the Class X examination in 2020-21 so that they will be eligible for recruitment in government services. Owing to the pandemic, the state board students, almost 9.3 lakh of them, were awarded a pass certificate without the mark sheet as the public examinations could not be held. The court had already ruled out the awarding of marks without appearing for the examinations, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
PIL filed by advocate Ramkumar Adityan was dismissed before the first bench Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy. Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram submitted that the court had already ruled out the awarding of marks without appearing for the examinations.
The court questioned the petitioner's locus standi and dismissed the PIL, leaving the students unable to participate in competitive examinations held by government departments and public sector undertakings based on Class X marks, as reported by The New Indian Express.
Advocate Ramkumar Adityan argued that Class XII students were awarded marks by taking into account their marks in Class X, XI, and XII, and Class X students should also be awarded marks for job recruitment. The students who are currently in Class XII are unable to appear for competitive examinations held for government departments as they are not able to submit their Class X mark sheet. He added, Railway Recruitment Board, the army and the navy had called for employment applications based on Class X marks, but these students could not participate, stated The New Indian Express report.