Gujarat High Court Issues Notice On Law Students' Plea Against Gujarat University 's Decision To Conduct Offline Exams

Gujarat High Court has issued notice on a petition challenging Gujarat University's decision to conduct offline examination to law students.

The writ petition has been filed in the Gujarat High Court seeking to conduct online exams amidst the ongoing Covid-19 situation by Digvijay Bisht, Aman Pandey, Rushik Kapadia, Priyanshi Patel and Darshil Patel, a group of law students enrolled in the Gujarat University, represented by Advocates Kishan Chakwawala and Prithviraj Jadeja

Justice Biren Vaishnav issued an order to serve the advance copy of the petition the respondent's counsel, Adv. Vikas Nair on 3rd June 2021. 

The Gujarat University issued a notification on 28th May 2021 declaring to conduct offline/physical examinations for law students of 2nd and 10th semesters on 10th June 2021 and for the rest of the batches from 24th June 2021 amidst the rising cases in the State. The said notification has been challenged by the petitioners.

The students have submitted that several other schools and colleges in the State have conducted online examinations for the same in view of the prevailing circumstances. The petitioners have also cited a series of Notifications from the Bar Council of India issued in 2020 which directed colleges across India to prefer an online mode of examination or to promote students based on their previous performances.

The petition argues that apart from the risk of contravening the virus, it is not practical for students to appear for physical examinations on the said date since many students hail from other States, where lockdown and travel restrictions persist.

It also points out how it is not feasible to wait till the current pandemic to end to conduct examinations, since this causes an inherent delay in the commencement of next semesters and their further studies, particularly for final year students.

'The decision of conducting physical examinations and exposing the lives of the students, teachers, staff and other to Covid-19, and further wasting the crucial time of the students till offline exams can be conducted has hindered the Right to Equality of students', it reads.

The petition has urged the High Court to quash the Notification issued by the Gujarat University and to take immediate action in view of the same to direct the University to conduct online examinations at the earliest.