SC reserves verdict on states’ power to cancel final exams

SC reserves verdict on states’ power to cancel final exams

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:19.08.2020

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the question whether state governments had power under the Disaster Management Act to cancel final examinations for award of degrees to college students even though the University Grants Commission has asked universities to conduct final examinations by September 30.

Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Delhi said the UGC could not have taken a unilateral decision to hold final examinations, turning a blind eye to the Covid-19 pandemic which is accounting for over 50,000 new infections daily.

Though there had been a push to empower students with laptops for years, the common refrain of these four states was that most students were from rural areas and did not have access to laptops. Giving examinations with mobile phones would be extremely difficult and connectivity and internet speed were perennial issues that could raise the level of anxiety among students and deprive them of doing well in the examinations, the states said.

Senior advocates and advocates general of these states argued that when no public transport was available and when state governments had been empowered under the Disaster Management Act to take strict containment action during the pandemic, holding final examinations would be endangering the lives of many. They said past examination performance sheets of each student, along with internal assessments, were available with colleges and it would be easy to evaluate them on that basis and promote them without final examinations.

However, a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah said when UGC guidelines, as shown by solicitor general Tushar Mehta, were binding on universities, the commission’s decision not to recognise degrees without passing final examinations would also be binding. Before reserving its order, the SC said the only question was whether state governments, in a pandemic situation, had power under the DM Act to decide when to hold final examinations, especially when they pleaded that many colleges had been converted into Covid-19 testing centres.

The bench refused to interfere in the ongoing final examinations in Delhi University colleges. Mehta said the UGC guidelines had given three options — online, offline or hybrid system of examinations for final year students. He said around 300 universities had already conducted final examinations and another 400 were in the process of doing so. Mehta said the UGC had made a provision that if any student, for a genuine reason, could not appear in the final examination held before September 30, then she would be given one more chance.

Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Delhi said the UGC could not have taken a unilateral decision to hold final examinations, turning a blind eye to the Covid pandemic