New Delhi: Supreme Court two member bench on Tuesday told to the Andhra Pradesh Government if there is any fatality, we will hold the State responsible, on being informed of its decision to hold Class 12 board examination.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari was informed that Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are the only two states which have till now decided to hold the Class 12 board examination. The SC bench told the AP Counsel that you will have to give very good reasons to hold Class 12 board examinations. If there is any fatality, we will hold the state responsible.

AP State’s advocate Mahfooz Nazki said the government has till now decided to hold the examination but the final decision will be taken in the first week of July. The bench sought to know as to why the state was creating uncertainty in the minds of students by delaying the final decision for the first week of July. You take a decision by Wednesday and we will take up the matter on Thursday, the bench told AP advocate. SC is hearing a plea seeking directions to state governments to not hold board examinations in view of the Covid – 19 pandemic.

You must come up with a very good reason, if you want us to allow you to hold the Class 12 board exams. You must take the decision by tomorrow and file an affidavit, said SC bench.

Kerala Government Advocate G Prakash said that they have filed an affidavit indicating the decision of the state government to hold the examination. The bench said that it will consider the affidavit of Kerala Government on Thursday and asked a students’ body of the state to file a counter affidavit to the State Government’s response.

On Monday, Assam and Tripura Governments informed SC that they have cancelled their state boards of Class 12 board exam due to Covid – 19. The Counsel for the Karnataka government had said it too has announced that class 12 board exam has been cancelled, but no final decision has been taken as far as Class 10 examination is concerned.