The apex court upholds UGCs decision to hold final year exams.
The Supreme Court on Friday said the decision taken by some States like Delhi and Maharashtra under the Disaster Management Act to cancel the final-year UGC exam before September 30 due to COVID-19 will prevail.
States can apply to the UGC for an extension of the exam deadline. Their request will be considered by the UGC at the earliest.
Besides Maharashtra and Delhi, other States that have cancelled the UGC exams include Odisha, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan held that States’ Disaster Management authorities acted beyond their jurisdiction to promote final-year students without exams.
“States and universities cannot promote students without holding exams,” Justice Bhushan read from the judgment.
The court, however, did not quash the UGC’s July 6 directive to hold exams before September 30. This case only referred to States that had unilaterally cancelled the UGC exams by using their powers under the Disaster Management Act.
The UGC, in the last hearing, had argued that though its July 6 directive to conduct final-year exams by the end of September was not a “diktat”, States could not unilaterally cancel the exams, citing the pandemic.
“If the State governments had an issue, they cannot change the exam schedule on their own. They should meet with the Centre and consult with the UGC about their apprehensions,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for UGC, had submitted.
Mr. Mehta said the guidelines for conducting the exams involve multiple options for students. “They can take the exams online, offline or hybrid (partly online and partly in the physical format),” Mr. Mehta had said.
The Solicitor General had also said if a student was unable to appear for the exams in September, he could opt for a later date.
UGC had questioned the logic of cancelling the final-term exams for fear of COVID-19, but at the same time opening up universities and educational institutions for the next academic session.
The court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by over 30 students, represented by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, questioning the validity of the UGC’s directive.
With inputs from The Hindu
(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)