Delhi HC Issues Notice In Plea Moved By Law Students From GGSIPU Challenging University's Decision To Conduct Exams Through Physical Mode

The Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan has issued notices to Union of India, Delhi Government, GGSIPU, University Grants Commission, Amity Law School, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, and the Bar Council of India.

Filed by 19 intermediate semester students of various colleges affiliated to GGSIPU, the petition challenges the notification dated 30 September 2020 issued by the University for conducting examinations for such law students through physical mode.

It is the case of the Petitioners that the said decision violates the guidelines issued by both the Bar Council of India, as well as by the University Grants Commission, for conducting exams through online mode.

The Petitioners have further argued that conducting exams through physical mode in a middle of a pandemic would put the lives of students in extreme jeopardy. Further, the Petitioners also informed the court that they had already made representations before both the Supreme Court as well as this court, but to no avail.

The petition states that:

'According to the guideline, final year law students of 3 year and 5-year courses were allowed to appear through online examinations. The intermediate semester students were to be promoted on the basis of the performance of the previous years and marks obtained in internal examination of the current year. The Universities were directed to conduct end semester examination within a month of reopening of colleges. A press release dated 09/06/2020 was issued by the BCI clarifying the resolution guidelines dated 27/05/2020 which was again clarified vide resolution dated 5/10/2020. Despite the said guideline, the IP University notified examination in physical mode for intermediate semester students. This also contravened the guideline of the Ministry of Home Affairs dated 30/09/2020 on Unlock down.'

Additionally, BCI in an emergent meeting held on 01/11/2020 passed a resolution giving option to the students for either appearing in physical mode or online mode to be conducted by Colleges with adequate facilities and infrastructure.

The court will next take up this matter on November 12.

The Petitioners in this case were represented by Senior Advocate Sudhanshu Batra and Advocate Jahnvi Sharma.