Online semester exam mess: Another chance for B.Arch, student

The Madras High Court had directed Anna University to allow a B Arch student to write the fifth-semester exams again this March since there were some errors in uploading the answer sheet while the exams were conducted online during Covid-19 lockdown. Justice CV Karthikeyan passed the direction on hearing the petition filed by S Meghashree, who sought direction to quash the order of the deputy controller of examination (COE) to the School of Architecture and Planning, which rejected her appearance for the fifth-semester semester exam held in 2020. She further wanted to nullify the approval of the varsity’s Vice Chancellor upholding the COE’s decision. When the matter was taken up, the university’s standing counsel U Bharanidharan submitted that she had not properly uploaded the answer sheets in PDF form. Though the petitioner argued that she had uploaded the answer sheets to Google Cloud, respondents noted that the answer sheets could be altered even after they had been submitted to the University. They also expressed doubts on whether the petitioner had uploaded the answer sheets. Recording the submissions, the judge held that he did not want to go into this issue since the petitioner was a student at the university now. “Let the respondents provide her with the necessary application form for writing the exam. On payment of the exam fees, the petitioner is permitted to write the exam,” the judge ordered. He pointed out that he was informed that the petitioner had done very well in all her exams and his court could only wish her well.