NIVEDITHA K.M Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in these cases have approached this Court seeking a direction to the 5 th respondent - Secretary of the Pareeksha Bhavan to issue them the necessary Equivalency Certificates, so as to enable them to pursue higher studies. They say that the competent Authorities are refusing the Equivalency Certificate only because an age of 17 has been specified for each student as the minimum required age, but that through the order of this Court in W.P.(C)No.20011/2020 has already declared that this stipulation is illegal and unlawful. They therefore, pray that the Pareeksha Bhavan be directed to issue to them their Equivalency Certificate at the earliest.

(2.) In response to the afore submissions of the petitioners made by their learned counsel, Sri.C.S.Dinesh, the learned Standing Counsel for the 4th respondent - Director of the SCERT, Sri.P.C.Sasidharan, submitted that the Government has already issued an order for this year taking away the rigour of minimum age required for issuance of Equivalency Certificates and therefore, that his client has already written to the Pareeksha Bhavan, through the communication dated 30.11.2020, that he is not required to wait for any action from their side and that Pareeksha Bhavan can issue the Equivalency Certificates as per law.

(3.) In response, the learned Senior Government Pleader, Smt.Nisha Bose, submitted that even though the Government has now issued an order as afore, the Pareeksha Bhavan is incapacitated from granting the Equivalency Certificates to 34 out of the 42 petitioners in these cases, because the files are yet to be received from the SCERT. The learned Senior Government Pleader submitted that as soon as the files are so received from the SCERT, necessary action for issuance of the Equivalency Certificates will be taken by the competent Authority.