On pleas to cancel final exams, Supreme Court seeks UGC's reply

New Delhi [India], July 27 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday sought a reply from the University Grants Commission (UGC) on a bunch of pleas challenging its circular and seeking cancellation of final term examination in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan asked UGC to file a reply by Wednesday and posted the matter for hearing on Friday.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the UGC told the court during the hearing that there are 818 universities out of which 209 universities have already conducted examination (online or offline) and 394 are planning to conduct the examination.
He said the UGC has given options like online, offline and merger of both. Then there are government guidelines that not more than 10 students per room are allowed.
During the hearing, advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, appearing for one of the petitioners told the bench that today 50,000 COVID-19 cases have been registered, so the UGC guidelines need to stay till the petitions are pending in the apex court.
One petition was filed by as many as 31 students from different universities across India seeking to quash the UGC circular dated July 6 whereby all universities all across India have been asked to wrap up the final term examinations before September 30.
The students, in their petition, urged that the exams should be cancelled and the results of such students should be calculated on the basis of their internal assessment or past performance.
The petition filed by students from 13 states and one union territory requested that the students' marksheets should be issued before July 31.
One of the students, among the 31 petitioners, has tested positive for COVID-19 and prayed for directions to the UGC to adopt the CBSE model and conduct an examination at a later date for the students who are not satisfied with the marks awarded on the basis of the assessment.
The plea stated that the planned examinations should be cancelled in the interest of justice for the students as the number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise.
As per the UGC, universities were approached to inform the status of the conduct of examinations and responses were received from 818 universities (121 deemed universities, 291 private universities, 51 central universities, and 355 state universities).
Out of the 818 universities, 603 have either conducted the examination or are planning to conduct them. Meanwhile, 209 others have already conducted examination (on-line/off-line), 394 are planning to conduct examination (on-line/off-line/blended mode) in August or September.
The commission has also said that for 35 universities, of which 27 are private, seven state-run, and one deemed university, the first batch is yet to become eligible for the final exams.
Another petition on the issue, filed in the apex court by final year law student Yash Dubey, also sought cancellation of UGC mandated final year exams. Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray has also moved the apex court on behalf of Yuva Sena, the youth wing of Shiv Sena, against the mandated final year exams in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases. (ANI)