New Delhi: The University Grants Commission has justified the decision of conducting final year and final semester examinations in the end of September and asked the Supreme Court that this has been done to save the academic future of students across the country. The UGC has filed a 50-page affidavit in the court on petitions challenging the July 6 notification to conduct final year examinations.
It said that in June this year, in view of the state of the Covid-19 epidemic, it requested the expert committee to reconsider the guidelines of April 29. In the April guidelines, universities and educational institutions were asked to conduct final year examinations in July 2020.
According to the UGC, the expert committee did the same and in its report recommended conducting semester and final year examinations by offline, on-line, or mixed process at the end of September 2020. According to the affidavit, the report of the expert committee was discussed and approved by the UGC in its July 6 meeting. Soon after, the changed guidelines regarding final year examinations were issued keeping the Covid-19 epidemic in mind.
During the Covid-19 epidemic, the Shiv Sena youth unit ‘Yuva Sena’ and many other institutions and individuals have filed petitions challenging the July 6 directive to all universities and colleges to conduct final year examinations by September 30. In these petitions, it has been requested to direct the concerned authorities that final year examinations should not be conducted in view of the prevailing situation and the results should be declared on the basis of past performance or internal assessment of the students.
A number of issues have been raised in these petitions, including the problems of millions of students due to floods in Bihar and Assam and the decision by many states to cancel the examinations of state universities due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The court directed the Central and University Grants Commission to file their reply in the matter on 27 July. The case is listed for hearing on 31 July.
