New Delhi: The question regarding the final year exams continues to loom on the head of students as the Supreme Court heard a batch of pleas that have challenged the decision of the University Grants Commission (UGC) to conduct the exams. And now, a bench that was headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan has urged UGC to respond to the pleas by Wednesday. The hearing has now been postponed and hence, students will have to wait
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, one behalf of the UGC, went on to highlight how out of the 818 universities, 209 of them have already gone through the examination process while 394 of them have a plan to conduct the same in the near future. In addition, he also went on to highlight how the UGC offers options on the way they conduct their exams and that the government has also laid out the guidelines suggesting one room cannot have more than 10 students.
On behalf of one of the petitioners, advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava also went on to highlight how given the number of cases recorded has gone up to 50,000, until the petitions are at the apex court, the UGC guidelines have to be stayed.
This hearing was in regards to a petition that has been filed by over 31 students across various universities in the country in order to quash the UGC guidelines for final year exams, which have to be wrapped up by September 30. The petition has urged the UGC to cancel the exams and mark them on the basis of prior performance.
Among the students who have filed the petition, one tested positive for the virus and also suggested how UGC must go ahead with the model followed by CBSE thereby allowing students to write an exam at a later date in case they are not happy with the marks acquired based on assessments and prior performance.
In addition, final year law student Yash Dubey has urged the apex court in the petition seeking the cancellation of the mandatory final year exams. In fact, Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray too has moved up the court in order to cancel the final year exams given the increase in the number of COVID cases.
