Madras High Court Refuses to Stay Online School Classes in the State

Madras High Court has refused to grant an interim stay on the online classes being given in educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. The ruling comes in the midst of rising concerns over the online classes in the state.

The schools in the state had started online classes after being shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

However, the High Court has declared that there have to be guidelines for conducting online classes from the central and state government. The court has asked the central and state government to issue guidelines and has posted the issue to 25 June for filing any counters.

The petition was filed to prevent educational institutions from giving online classes without proper guidelines. The division has issued a notice regarding this at the hearing as it found no particular guidelines issued in this regard.

V Jayaprakash Narayan, the Tamil Nadu State Government Counsellor, informed the High Court that the state has not permitted any educational institutions to conduct online classes. He added that they have also been barred from demanding fees from the students according to a government order.

The Senior Counsel S Prabhakaran had requested the court to pass an interim order restraining the educational institutions from conducting online classes.

The High Court has directed the Central Government as well as the State Government to file a report on the availability of guidelines for conducting online classes