Supreme Court to hear plea against UGC circular mandating final term exams on July 27

Supreme Court will hear on July 27 pleas challenging a University Grants Commission (UGC) circular to conduct final examination in month of September. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan will hear plea seeking cancellation of final exams on Monday.

A total of 31 students from universities across 13 states and one union territory approached apex court to quash UGC circular dated July 6 in which all universities in country have been asked to conduct final term exams before September 30. students, in ir petition, said that exams should be cancelled and ir final results should be calculated on basis of past performance. It also proposed that ir mark sheets should be issued by July 31.

One of students among 31 petitioners tested positive for COVID-19 and sought directions to UGC to adopt CBSE model and postpone exams for students who are t satisfied with ir internal assessment score. plea sought cancellation of scheduled examinations in interest of students as number of COVID-19 cases is on rise.

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603 universities willing to conduct exams

UGC had approached universities to get status about examinations. It received responses from 818 universities (121 deemed universities, 291 private universities, 51 central universities, and 355 state universities). According to UGC, out of total 818 universities, 603 have eir held examination or are planning to conduct soon. While 209 ors have already held exams, 394 are planning to conduct exams in August or September.

Ar petition on issue was filed in apex court by final year law student Yash Dubey, who also sought cancellation of UGC mandated final year exams. Apart from this, Maharashtra cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray also moved apex court on behalf of Yuva Sena, youth wing of Shiv Sena, against UGC’s decision to conduct final year exams in wake of rising COVID-19 pandemic.

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(With inputs from ncy)