Supreme Court to hear plea against UGCs order to conduct final year exams

Guwahati: On Thursday, the Supreme Court heard a petition by the students challenging University Grants Commissions' (UGC's) guidelines on conducting exams for final year students. Justice Rao, who heard the petition, informed that a bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan will take up the students' concerns challenging the UGC guidelines in the next two days.

This was announced after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that a similar plea seeking to cancel final year exams that was listed before Ashok Bhushan was dismissed. Justice L Nageshwara Rao and Hemant Gupta headed the bench hearing the students' plea seeking cancellation of university exams during these trying times of the pandemic.

Earlier, the UGC had mandated all universities across India to conduct exams for the final year students and wrap up their courses by September 30th. The Central University Commission had also strictly asked the universities to conduct final year varsity exams, warning them of the consequences if they failed to do so.

The students who hailed from 13 states and one union territory have demanded the cancellation of the University final year exams to be conducted before September 30, 2020. The circular regarding the conduct of exams was published on July 6, 2020. Among the 31 petitioners, one student is Covid-19 positive. In the plea, the students have requested the exams to be canceled and the results to be calculated on the basis of their internal assessment or past performance. The plea also urges the students' mark sheets to be available before July 31.

Meanwhile, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has assured that the students' concerns are being considered and the ones that are found to have merit will be looked into.

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