Additional exams to be conducted for students missing July 1 dates: Kerala Varsity to HC

The Kerala University on Tuesday informed the Kerala High Court that the students who would not be able to appear for the annual examinations scheduled from July 1, can appear for them later on. The decision by the Kerala University comes in the light of the petition filed by representatives of the students asking for a stay order on the July 1 exams.

The students submitted that they were stranded in different parts of the country owing to the lockdown. The petition also added that many would find it impossible to appear for the examinations despite being in the city since their homes were in containment zones. 

A single bench of Justice CS Dias refused to pass a stay order on the July 1 exams directing the Vice-Chancellor of the varsity to take a decision by today itself on the representations filed by the students. 

"As the scope of judicial review in the scheduling of the examination is very limited, and the fact that the students who are willing to appear and write the examination have not been impleaded at least in their representative capacity and since the examinations are to commence from July 1, 2020, and further for the elaborate arrangements and reasons pleaded by the university in the statements filed before this court, I decline to pass an ad-interim order to stay the examinations," the bench said in its order.

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The representative of the students had also argued that scheduling of the exams, without the required number of teaching days as per the UGC was arbitrary. "As per the UGC regulations, there has to be a minimum of 90 teaching days; but the semester had only 29 days due to suspension of classes since March 9 on account of COVID-19," he had submitted. 

Meanwhile, the Kerala University assured that additional examinations will be held for the candidates who cannot appear for them at the moment. "Such exams will be treated as special examinations and no additional fee will be collected for the same. Also, the special examination will not be treated as a supplementary examination and will have the legal status of an ordinary examination," the Kerala University submitted. 

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(With Agency Inputs)