UGC Final Year Exams: Supreme Court refuses to pass interim order, verdict likely in next hearing. University final year exams are not yet canceled. The hearing in the Supreme Court on the UGC new guidelines for final year exams has been adjourned till August 10.
The Supreme Court has postponed the hearing on University Grants Commission’s, UGC guidelines on Final year Exams till August 10, 2020. It has also asked for the Ministry of Home Affairs stand on the issue. In today’s hearing the apex court has asked to submit the affidavits by August 7 and the rejoinders by August 8, 2020. Thus the University final year exams have not been cancelled yet.
On July 30, 2020, UGC said in its affidavit filed in the apex court, "All universities and institutions obligated to conduct terminal semester or final year exam by the end of September 2020." SC took notice of the fact that the fresh guidelines issued on July 6 did not consider the MHA guidelines. It said, “MHA guidelines were of July 20. How can July 6 guidelines take them into account? The purpose of that guideline by MHA did not relate to exams.”
As per the UGC's fresh guidelines issued, if any student is unable to appear for the exam conducted till September 30, they would be given another chance to appear at a specially conducted exam at a later date so that the student is not put to any inconvenience or disadvantage. As per the advocate for the students, the optional exams were problematic. They could create chaos for the students who could not appear in the main exams.
Cancelling Final Year Exams 2020: UGC's stand on the final year university exams.
UGC had released the Examination Guidelines for the academic session 2020 on April 22 this year. As per those guidelines, universities were given time till August 30 to conduct their final year exams for students.
All varsities could, however, cancel the exams for intermediate semesters. With the increasing number of cases, UGC was asked to revise its guidelines by the MHRD. So it extended the time limit for conducting exams for final year students till September 30. It, however, maintained that degrees cannot be granted without examination.
Cancelling Final Year Exams 2020: About Maharashtra Exams.
Maharashtra Government had announced the cancellation of university exams, including the final year examinations after the state saw a spike in the number of cases. This decision, however, was instantly challenged by the Governor of the state and a tussle ensued. UGC shared that the state government did not have the necessary authority to cancel the examinations.
The state has, in turn, informed that it cannot permit the university to conduct the examination in the state as the number of cases continued to rise. Today Justice Bhushan said in the hearing, “We will grant you time. Let the decision taken by the State disaster management committee of Maharashtra file a reply.”
Breaking:UGC Guidelines on Final Year Exams: Supreme Court adjourns matter to August 10, asks MHA to make its stand clear#StudentsInSCForJustice #StudentsInSCAgainstUGC @advocate_alakh @anubha1812 #finalyearexams https://t.co/PnCpH6Q0Ex
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) July 31, 2020