In an interim order, the Bombay High Court today directed the Maharashtra government to provide uninterrupted power to all the examination centres for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) examinations this month, and in future.
The order came during the hearing of contempt of court petition filed by activist Vishnu Gawli which alleged that there was load-shedding at several examination centres in the state recently, in defiance of the HC's order of 2009.
The bench, headed by Justice Abhay Oka, also asked the SSC and HSC boards to provide to the government, two months ahead of the board examinations, a list of centres in the areas where power cuts are frequent.
If electricty was not available, the state must arrange for generators and inverters at its own cost, the court said, adjourning the matter to February 19, 2015.
Initially, the state had said there was a shortage of generators, and they may prove hazardous, but later it changed its position and promised uninterrupted power supply at the exam centres.
The court had pulled up the state earlier for its apathy towards students. "Why there was no load shedding during festivals? Why only load shedding at examination centres?" it had asked.
In 2008, Gawli had written a letter to the High Court on the issue which was converted into a public interest litigation.
