Conduct of final year university exams
The matter will be taken up for hearing on July 31.
The Supreme Court today issued notice in a batch of petitions challenging the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines mandating universities across India to conduct their final year exams by September 30 (Praneeth K & Ors v. Union of India).
The matter will be taken up for hearing on July 31, by which date the UGC is required to file its response to the pleas.
The three-judge Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shahheard the matter today.
During today’s hearing, Senior AdvocateAbhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for one of the petitioners, stated that the decision to hold final year exams amid the COVID-19 pandemic was “unrealistic and remarkable”.
He further pointed out that states have been given no discretion on the issue, despite expressing their objections.
At this point, Justice Bhushan asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for UGC, if he required time to seek instructions.
In response, Mehta said,
“We are only concerned with final year exams. There are 818 universities in India and out of these, 35 have not reached final year exams. 209 have completed the exams, 394 are in the process of conducting the exams.”
He went on to state that students have been given the option to take the exams online, offline, or a merger of both. He also cited guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which state that exams can take place with not more than 10 students in one room, in order to maintain social distancing.
Advocate Alok Alakh Srivastava, appearing for the petitioners, pointed out,
“Today 50,000 COVID-19 cases have been registered. There needs to be a stay on these guidelines till the matter is pending.”
SG Mehta ultimately said that the UGC would file a common reply to the batch of the petitions filed in the Supreme Court.
The matter will be heard next on July 31.
The lead petition in the case is a plea filed by 31 students from Indian universities across the country. They have challenged the UGC guidelines as being arbitrary, given that it would compel students to appear in exams during the COVID-19 pandemic, posing a risk to their health.
This matter was tagged with three others – including one petition by law student Yash Dubey, the plea by Aaditya Thackeray’s Yuva Sena, and a petition filed by a final year student Krushna Waghmare.
The plea by the 31 students prays for a direction to the UGC to adopt the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) model and conduct an examination at a later date for those students who are not satisfied with the marks awarded on the basis of their internal/past assessment.
On July 24, the Supreme Court had heard another petition by National Students Union of India (NSUI) seeking to cancel or postpone all pending exams in India including the final year exams.
However, a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan on that date, dismissed the plea as it observed that the Union would look into it.
There were also rumours of NSUI filing another petition before the Delhi High Court. But speaking to Bar & Bench, NSUI Delhi President Akshay Lakra has confirmed that the petition filed in his name before the Delhi High Court is the only petition. NSUI will not be filing any other petition challenging the UGC guidelines.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had permitted the conduct of exams by universities and institutions vide notification dated July 6, 2020. Universities were directed to compulsorily conduct examination of final year students as per the UGC guidelines and Standard Operating Procedure.
In furtherance of the aforementioned notification, UGC issued revised guidelines for examinations to be given by terminal semester students, whereby it instructed universities to conduct exams through offline (pen & paper)/online/blended (offline + online) modes.
