High Court Postpones SSC Exams In GHMC Limits

In an important development, the Telangana High Court on Saturday directed the state government to not conduct the scheduled SSC exams in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits in view of the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the area.

As per the court's direction, the exams will now not be held in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and in the areas of neighbouring districts Ranga Reddy, Medchal and Medak which fall in the GHMC limits.

The court, however, permitted the Telangana government to go ahead and conduct the examinations in the other districts of the state as per the revised schedule - i. e. June 8 to July 5.

However, even the students of the other districts of the state where the exams have been permitted have been given the choice to not write the exam and instead appear for the supplementary exams (which will be advanced). The government informed the court that students who are not able to appear for the exams now would be allowed to appear for advanced supplementary examinations, and such students would be treated as regular candidates as a special case for this year alone.

The bench directed the government to review the situation from time to time, and posted the matter to June 19 for further hearing.

The SSC examinations will now be conducted in Telangana from June 8 to July 5, from 9:30 am to 12:15 pm.

As many as 2,005 more examination centres have been set up in addition to the original 2,530 centres, and the services of 26,422 government employees will be used to conduct the exams.

The TSRTC will operate buses, and the students need to turn up at the centres one hour before an examination starts. Masks and thermal screening have been arranged at all the centres.

The examinations will be conducted as per the lockdown norms by maintaining physical distance, and use of face masks and sanitizers.

Each bench will have only one student, and the exam centres will all be sanitized.

The examinations will be held on alternate days.