Opposing UGC's decision to conduct exams over pandemic: Students to SC

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah has started final hearing through video conferencing on a batch of petitions challenging the UGC's decision to hold the final exams

Nobody is against the university examinations in normal times and the students are challenging the decision of the UGC to conduct them because of the pandemic, the Supreme Court was told by the counsel for students on Friday.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has told the top court that the final examination is a crucial step in the academic career of a student and the state government cannot say that its July 6 directive, asking universities and colleges to conduct final year examinations by September 30 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, was not binding.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah has started final hearing through video conferencing on a batch of petitions challenging the UGC's decision to hold the final university examinations.

Nobody is against the examinations in regular times and we are against the examinations in pandemic time, senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for one Yash Dubey, told the bench.

He also referred to the provisions of the Disaster Management Act and said that even the courts are required to be shut due the operation of the special law and the students cannot be forced to take the examinations when the COVID-19 cases are rising.

Senior advocate Shaym Divan appeared for Yuva Sena, the youth wing of Shiv Sena and argued against holding of the examinations during pandemic times.

Covid-19 cases are rising exponentially in states like Maharashtra and at many places, colleges and educational institutions have been converted to quarantine centres, he said.

"Nowhere does the UGC state that there has been an improvement in the health system or if there's a new containment method", Divan said.

We have heard Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior counsel for the petitioner (Yash Dubey) and Shyam Divan, senior counsel for the petitioner (Yuva Sena). List the matters on August 18. .., the bench noted in its order.

Earlier, the UGC had said that the final examination is a crucial step in the academic career of a student and the state government cannot refuse to hold them.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had said the July 6 guidelines are based on the recommendations of experts and have been made after due deliberation and it is wrong to claim that it will not be possible to conduct the final examinations in terms of the guidelines.

That apart, the state govt (Maharashtra) avers that the next academic session must begin in the interest of students, while, at the same time, contending that the final examinations should be cancelled and degrees can be awarded without such examinations even though such a step would irreparably damage the future of students. Such contentions by the state government are clearly therefore meritless, the UGC had said in its reply to the affidavit filed by Maharashtra earlier.

The UGC has also filed its reply to the affidavit filed by Delhi government in the top court.

On August 10, the UGC had questioned the decisions of Delhi and Maharashtra governments to cancel final year exams of state universities amid the Covid-19 pandemic, saying they were against the rules.

In its reply to Maharashtra's affidavit, the UGC has said that it is entirely wrong to say that its revised guidelines of July 6 are not binding on the state government and its universities.

The solicitor general had informed the bench that out of over 800 universities in the country, 209 have completed the examinations while around 390 universities are in the process of conducting exams.

The UGC had earlier filed an affidavit in the apex court and justified its decision directing all universities and institutions to hold final year/semester examinations in September saying it was done to protect the academic future of students across the country.

The UGC had said that in June this year, considering the evolving situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, it requested the expert committee to revisit the April 29 guidelines, by which it had asked the universities and institutions to hold final year examinations in July 2020.

The expert committee submitted a report recommending that terminal semester/final year examinations should be conducted by universities/ institutions by the end of September, 2020 in offline (pen & paper)/ online/ blended (online + offline) mode, the UGC had said.

It added that this report of the expert committee was deliberated and approved by the UGC in its emergent meeting held on July 6, since the conduct of the final year/terminal examination is a time-sensitive issue.

Assailing the decisions of some states like Maharashtra and Delhi of cancelling the final year examinations, the commission had said that such decisions directly affect the standards of higher education and will be an encroachment on the legislative field of coordinating and determining the standards of higher education that is exclusively reserved for Parliament under Schedule VII of the Constitution.