A group of Human Rights Defenders wanted to register their peaceful protest against the discrepancies in the evaluation process of the Board in the Intermediate Examination in which thousands of students as many who scored 90% in the first-year exams were found to have failed the second-year examinations.
Image Courtesy: Times of India
Hyderabad: According to sources on May 2, 2019, a group of human rights defenders belonging to various civil society organizations including some concerned citizens of the city of Hyderabad went to the office of Telangana State Board of Intermediate Examination (TSBIE) and asked permission to meet with the Secretary of TSBIE.
The group of HRDs wanted to register their peaceful protest against the discrepancies in the evaluation process of the Board in the Intermediate Examination in which thousands of students as many who scored 90% in the first-year exams were found to have failed the second-year examinations.
The media reported that of the nine lakh students who had appeared for the Intermediate-level examinations, about 3 lakh of them failed this year in their examinations in the second year.
The students and parents have reportedly alleged that the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) and Globe Arena Technologies Pvt Ltd, a firm hired by the board to handle the admission and examination process, have committed blunders in the evaluation process and the result declaration.
It had been reported that as many as 21 students have committed suicide in Telangana since the results for Intermediate Board were declared on April 18, 2019.
The group of HRDs wanted to submit a representation for justice of deceased student’s families. The Telangana education officials reportedly accepted that there have been errors in the process. They said they would act against the erring board officials as well as the private company. The defenders were demanding that the action should be taken against the government and company officials responsible for causing deaths of students.
Meanwhile the police were called and the police officials from Begumbazar police station, Hyderabad, arrested the group of defenders from the venue of the Intermediate Board and detained them at Begumbazar Police Station, from 11.45 AM onwards on May 2, 2019, without providing them with any facilities such as water, wash room etc. and without stating any reason for their detention. They were released later the same evening.
“Freedom of speech and expression is a right guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India and is being considered integral to democratic values for it enables discovery of truth through dialogue, is crucial to the working of a democratic Constitution and is an aspect of one’s autonomy. Article 19 (1) (c) of the Constitution guarantees to all its citizens the right to form associations to be able to raise collective voices. Therefore, police harassment (which again is illegal) of the Human Rights Defenders mentioned above by the State for raising a representation on a critical issue amounts to violation of the Constitutional provisions of the country and thus require urgent attention of this commission,” the HRD India Telangana division wrote in their statement.
Appeal by HRD Alert India:
- Order an immediate, thorough, transparent, effective and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned incident of illegally arresting and detaining the abovementioned human rights defenders by the police.
- Take immediate action on the alleged perpetrators as mentioned above for illegally arresting and detaining human rights defenders and using all provisions of law to ensure that the human rights defenders are not harassed, ill-treated and falsely implicated by the police in future as a result of the legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
- Ensure provision of compensation and apology to the defenders for the physical and psychological sufferings they have undergone because of their illegal detention.
HRD Alert – India is a forum of Human Rights Defenders for Human Rights Defenders. It endeavours to initiate actions on behalf of Human Rights Defenders under threat or with security concerns.