Supreme Court hearing on challenge to UGC Guidelines on July 31, issues notice

The Supreme Court has sought a reply from the University Grants Commission (UGC) on a plea filed by a group of students against its decision to hold final year exams by September-end. A petition filed is up for hearing in the apex court by a group of students, including a COVID positive student, demanding cancellation of final exams as they claim it is against the “right to life”. However, as per the revised guidelines of the UGC, universities should hold the term-end exams by September-end.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said that replies be filed by UGC and the Centre on the pleas and posted the matter for hearing on July 31. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah, that they are only concerned with final year exams and out of over 800 universities in the country, 209 have completed the examinations, as reported by the PTI.

Mehta said that around 390 universities are in the process



of conducting the examinations. Referring to the guidelines issued by the authorities, he said students can appear in the examinations online, offline, or mixture of both. The bench said a consolidated reply be filed on the batch of petitions, including the one filed by Shiv Sena”s youth wing ”Yuva Sena”, and posted it for hearing on July 31, as reported by PTI.

The counsel appearing for one of the petitioners told the bench that several states have raised objections over conducting exams amid the pandemic.

Since the UGC has released its revised guidelines making it compulsory to hold final year exams, the decision has been widely criticised. While students and academicians across India have been demanding mass promotion based on internal assessment, UGC has maintained its stance. While addressing the Bombay High court, the UGC had said, “The decision to cancel final year exams would directly affect the standards of higher education in India.”