Law students urge to halt Law College final year exams

In an online petition, the Law Students’ Union of Sri Lanka urges Sri Lanka Law College to halt conducting its final year examinations these days with the participation of over 1400 students from all over the country at Lumbini College, Colombo 05.

The Law Students’ Union stated that the students have already completed six subjects with two more to go on the 13th (Commercial Law - 1) and 17th (Commercial Law - 2) of August 2021.

The Students’ Union stated that it has initiated signing of this online petition to voice out the concerns raised by the students about safety and well-being, given the recent spike in the country’s Covid-19 situation.

The Students’ Union is expecting to hand over this petition to the Chief Justice, Members of the Incorporated Council of Legal Education and other officials.

It has been discovered that three members of the Law College administrative staff have been tested positive for Covid-19. The first contacts of these staff members are still involved in exam-related activities without being quarantined. Furthermore, eight exam candidates have been already tested positive. No measures have been taken by the Law College administration to identify and inform their first contacts as of yet. This raises the question of why the administration hesitates to identify and inform the first contacts, since ideally, they are supposed to be quarantined as per the quarantine regulations. On the contrary, the administration encourages all the first contacts to come to the examination centers and take part in the examinations, the Law Student’s Union added.

The Students’ Union further said the majority of students could expose to grave danger in terms of health, since majority of the student population are below 30 years of age, as a result, they have not received the Covid-19 vaccine.

"We believe that now isn’t the ideal time to accommodate such a large group, especially since they come from various parts of the country including Jaffna, Kandy, Galle, etc. Moreover, more than 100 Covid-19 deaths are reported daily. Also, it may be noted that they are unable to stay in Colombo so they travel back and forth, each day which further expands the risk of spreading the virus from Colombo to outstation areas," the Law Students’ Union added. (Lakmal Sooriyagoda)