The High Court on Thursday issued directions to allow seven students of National Cadet Corps (NCC) to appear for their ‘C’ certificate exams scheduled for March 30 and 31.

However, Justice B S Patil directed that the results of these students will be subject to final disposal of the petition. The Court observed that NCC cadets are like Army jawans, ready to sacrifice their lives, and questioned why the seven NCC students were bothered about their beards.

The students from Al-Ameen Arts, Science and Commerce College, Bangalore, filed a writ petition in the High Court on Wednesday challenging the Karnataka Battalion National Cadets Corps Authority for not allowing them to write the ‘C’ certificate examination for sporting beards.

The petitioners stated that when they were writing the examination, a senior rank officer walked into their examination hall, asked these seven students to stop writing and to get out of the examination hall for not shaving their beards.

There were three undergraduation (B Com) students and four PU students writing the exams at RC College near High Grounds on February 23 and 24.

They further stated that after the examination, the students even tried to consult the authority to give them permission to appear for examination, but they were directed that they would be allowed to appear for the supplementary exams only if they shaved their beards. The supplementary examinations are scheduled for March 30 and 31.

The petitioner further said shaving their beards is against to their community beliefs and sought directions from the High Court to direct the NCC authority to allow them to write a supplementary exam without shaving their beards.

Team for NBWs

The High Court has suggested the City police to revive the team of officials constituted for executing non-bailable warrants (NBWs).

The Court had summoned City Police Commissioner B G Jyothiprakash Mirji to explain the reason for police not executing the NBWs in company petitions. Justice Ram Mohan Reddy asked Mirji, who was present in the Court, to revive the team formed during the tenure of Shankar Bidari to facilitate execution of non-bailable warrants.

Additional Advocate General Sajjan Poovaiah tendered apology on behalf of Mirji and ensured that steps would be taken to ensure execution of non-bailable warrants on time.

Contempt plea

The High Court of Karnataka has ordered emergent notices to the Commissioner of Public Instructions in a contempt petition filed by the Karnataka State Minorities Educational Institutions Managements Federation charging the commissioner with violating the court order on enforcing the Right to Education Act.

According to the petitioners, the High Court on June 18, 2012, disposed off a writ petition on the basis of the judgement of the Supreme Court stating that RTE was not applicable to unaided minority schools. 

Despite this, the commissioner issued a press release on February 5, 2013 directing minority schools to comply with all provisions of the Act.