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

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

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

One of the students among the 31 petitioners tested positive for COVID-19 and sought directions to the UGC to adopt the CBSE model and postpone the exams for the students who are not satisfied with their internal assessment score. The plea sought cancellation of scheduled examinations in the interest of students as the number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise.

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603 universities willing to conduct exams

UGC had approached universities to get the status about the 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 the total 818 universities, 603 have either held the examination or are planning to conduct soon. While 209 others have already held exams, 394 are planning to conduct exams in August or September.

Another petition on the issue was filed in the 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 the apex court on behalf of Yuva Sena, the youth wing of Shiv Sena, against the UGC’s decision to conduct final year exams in the wake of rising COVID-19 pandemic.

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(With inputs from agency)