KARNATAKA HIGH COURT IN PLEA AGAINST BAN ON ONLINE CLASSES

The Karnataka High Court asked the state government to immediately consider allowing conduct of online classes for primary school students, till a committee submits a report on the issue.

The Court made the suggestion while dealing with the batch of petitions challenging the move to ban online classes for students from class LKG to class five.

 The Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy stated,

“The state government will consider permitting online education for limited hours till process of consultation by the committee is completed and appropriate decision is taken…”

Before taking the decision, the state government has not consulted committee of experts. After taking a blanket decision, the state government has appointed a committee. From the minutes tendered…we find that the committee has not yet submitted recommendations.

At this juncture, Senior Advocate Jayna Kothari submitted that the Ministry of Home Affairs, through its lockdown orders, had urged schools to organize online classes. Senior Advocate Uday Holla also made similar submissions, stating that even UNICEF had recommended going forward with online classes amid the pandemic.

As the Advocate General was not available today, the Court has adjourned the matter for hearing on June 29.