SC to Hear Plea against UGC Guidelines

The Supreme Court will be hearing the petitions challenging UGC Guidelines to conduct final year examinations for college students. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan will be hearing to the pleas that propose for the cancellation of final year exams. On July 6, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had issued a circular for universities to conduct exams for final year students before September. It had asked for exams to be conducted in offline or online mode.

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The decision was taken in consultation with the Ministry Of Human Resource and Development. UGC, in its argument for the same, had said that exams are an integral part of the education system. “Performance in exams contributes to merit, lifelong credibility, wider global accessibility for admissions, scholarships, awards and placements”, UGC said.

Following this, 31 students across 13 states and one Union Territory approached the Supreme Court. They asked for the exams to be cancelled and results to be formulated based on internal assessment and past performance of the students. Out of the 31 students, one is COVID positive as well.

They argue that due to rising COVID cases when Board exams have been cancelled then why not the same for college students? In their petition, they had also proposed for the final year mark sheets to be given by July 31. Apart from this, many individual petitions have also been filed against UGC’s order.

UGC had stated, that it approached universities to know about their status of examinations. It said that 818 universities gave a response. Out of these, 603 have either conducted or are planning to conduct the examination in the coming months.

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The order for conducting exams for final year students is opposite to what many state governments have declared. For example, in Delhi, the government recently declared that no exams will be held in colleges irrespective of the semester. However, Universities that come under Delhi Government have also released their date sheets.

Similarly, Aditya Thackeray has also moved to court on behalf of the Yuva Sena, against UGC’s circular.

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