SC: Final exams must for degrees, states can delay, but can’t nix them

SC: Final exams must for degrees, states can delay, but can’t nix them

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 29.08.2020

Ending the suspense for 1.5-crore final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, the Supreme Court on Friday said final examinations are a must to get degrees but ruled that in a pandemic situation, states had power under the Disaster Management Act to postpone examinations beyond the September 30 deadline set by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The court said the state or the disaster management authority could delay the final exams but not scrap them. They will need to be rescheduled in consultation with the UGC, the court said, upholding the regulator's mandate to set the rules for award of degrees. In doing so, the SC said it recognised the importance of the evaluation process. The SC said UGC guidelines had taken the pandemic situation into account and had given three options to universities for conducting final examinations — offline, online and a mix of both.

‘States have no power to pass students sans exams’

There was nothing unreasonable about the guidelines as it also provided another opportunity to students, who, for some reason, may miss the final examinations, it said.

Maharashtra has decided to cancel final-year examinations, citing rising Covid-19 cases. It found support from West Bengal and Delhi, who termed the UGC guidelines an advisory and not mandatory. In support of the Maharashtra government’s decision, Shiv Sena’s youth wing ‘Yuva Sena’ had moved the SC challenging UGC’s July 6 guidelines mandating completion of final examinations by September 30.

Disagreeing with their stand, a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah said states and universities had no power to “promote students in the final year or terminal semester” without holding final examinations. It said UGC was the sole authority to take a decision on this count.

“Decision of the state or State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) to promote students in the final year/terminal semester on the basis of previous performance and internal assessment being beyond the jurisdiction of Disaster Management Act, 2005, has to give way to the UGC’s July 6 guidelines directing to hold examination of final year/terminal semester,” it said.

However, the court said if the state or SDMA has decided that it cannot hold final examinations by September 30, then the state shall approach UGC for fixing a new schedule for final examination for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Full report on www.toi.in

‘For extension, states must approach UGC’

New Delhi: All centrally funded higher education institutions have been asked to comply with the UGC’s notification to conduct final-year exams by September-end, higher education secretary Amit Khare said, adding that if any state wanted an extension, they should apply to the UGC.

Professor R C Kuhad, who headed the expert committee of UGC on examination and academic calendar, said the SC ruling had put an end to the uncertainty around final exams. TNN