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Partner in the General Corporate Practice at the Bengaluru office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Nagavalli has been closely involved in several leading acquisitions, joint ventures, real estate financing, both in public and private companies and cross jurisdictional matters. Her work spans over advisory (including regulatory), strategic and transaction related matters. She also has significant exposure to labour laws and litigation. She can be reached at nagavalli.g@cyrilshroff.com.

COVID-19 Impact Responses by State Education Regulators

Background

To tackle the COVID-19 crisis, India has seen significant legislative and policy changes. The thrust of the new rule book has been aimed at softening the blow delivered by the crisis to various stakeholders in the society, including parents and students, and in certain cases, balancing this with the interests of the school management and staff.

Following in the footsteps of its global counterparts, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has announced three successive lockdowns till date – March 25, 2020, April 15, 2020 and May 1, 2020. The guidelines issued by the MHA pursuant to the lockdowns has prohibited operation of all educational, training, research and coaching institutes. However, the MHA and the state governments have encouraged education through online medium. Various state governments had taken similar steps even prior to the issuance of the MHA guidelines, and had also passed orders promoting all students till class VIII / IX to the next class without exams.

The interim shutdown of schools has come with its fair share of peculiar challenges, with fee collection drawing the most attention. While several states have taken measures in this regard, this post highlights the actions taken in six states – Delhi[1], Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
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