Only UGC can cancel exams, SC told

Only UGC can cancel exams, SC told

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:11.08.2020

The University Grants Commission told the SC on Monday that final year students enrolled in universities of Delhi and Maharashtra that have decided to cancel examinations due to the pandemic may face an uncertain future if the regulator refuses to recognise the degrees awarded to them without an examination.

The commission had asked all colleges and universities under it to complete final examinations by September 30. UGC told the SC through solicitor general Tushar Mehta that under the Constitution, UGC was the sole body authorised to take a decision on examinations and questioned the states’ authority to cancel final year exams. “If states decide not to hold examinations and promote students, and if UGC refuses to recognise the degrees awarded without examination, it is the students who will face hardship,” Mehta told a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, RS Reddy and MR Shah.

Hearing a bunch of petitions filed by students with intervention from states, the bench said the states claimed that they had decided to cancel final year examinations under the power conferred on them by the Disaster Management Act. “You (UGC) apply your mind to the play of DM Act on holding of examinations and we will hear the matter on Friday,” it said.

The petitioners have challenged the UGC’s July 6 guidelines directing all universities to complete final year examinations for 2019-20 by September. The Delhi government in an affidavit informed the court that classes in all eight universities in the national capital were completely disrupted due to Covid-19 and the option of conducting online examination was mulled but was found unsuitable because many students were unable to access the internet.

Full report on www.toi.in