Kerala Plus One Exams 2021 paused, SC says ‘Covid situation alarming’

Offline Class 11 exams in Kerala were scheduled to begin from September 6 that have been paused.

Supreme Court has decided to pause the Kerala Plus One Exams 2021 which were all set to begin from September 6 due to the ‘alarming’ COVID-19 situation in Kerala. The government’s decision to hold offline Class 11 exams is backed by the reason that, "Children of tender age can't be exposed to the risk (of contracting the virus)".

"There is an alarming situation in Kerala. It accounts for more than 70 per cent of cases in the country, with over 35,000 daily cases. Children of tender age can't be exposed to this risk," a bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice CT Ravikumar said.

Offline Class 11 exams were scheduled to begin from September 6.

The court was responding to a petition that challenged the decision of the Kerala High Court to not interfere with the state government's proposal to hold offline exams.

The cumulative Covid case count in the state crossed 41 lakh on Thursday, with more than 32,000 new cases recorded in the previous 24 hours.

The test positivity rate was a deeply concerning 18.41 per cent, a state government release said.

The 32,097 new COVID-19 cases recorded yesterday were nearly 70 per cent of total cases reported from across the country; the next highest state was Maharashtra with 4,456 cases.

Kerala has been reporting more than 30,000 new cases per day for the past few days.

On Wednesday the state reported 32,803 new cases in 24 hours.

Earlier this week the Union Health Ministry warned the state it needed to step up efforts to curb these increasing numbers, and called for a ‘smart and strategic lockdown’.

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