Covid-19: Students Of AKTU Move Supreme Court Against Decision To Conduct Semester End Examinations Via Offline Mode

The petition has been filed by the students of NIT, Noida; Apeejay Institute of Technology, Noida and Greater Noida Institute of Technology, seeking quashing of the notification providing for conduct of offline exams.

The students have stated that more than 700 colleges are affiliated to AKTU and approximately 4 lakh students have to appear in various courses. It is argued that having thousands of students at the examination centre is not a suggested step amidst Covid-19 which has still not ended, and the precautions and fear for infection is always there.

It is also submitted that if the examinations are conducted offline, many students will be compelled to travel from different states, thereby increasing the risk of spread of Covid-19. The same will also impose an unwarranted expense on the students, who will have to fetch accommodation for 10-20 days.

"In Colleges of Abdul Kalam Technical University more than 80% students are hostellers and live in different cities and parts of country than the city in which their college is located," it is claimed.

Further the students have argued that throughout the year they have studied online and accordingly are prepared for online examinations only.

"The students neither have books nor any resources to prepare for the off-line exams as they did not attend their respective colleges since march 2020 and never got books issued from the library so that they can prepare their notes properly," the plea states.

The AKTU issued an examination notification on January 25, 2021 calling for conducting offline examinations for Session 2020-2021, in its affiliated colleges.

The students seek that this notification be set aside as arbitrary and for being violative of Article 14 and 21A of the Constitution.

Some other grounds raised in the petition are as follows:

• AKTU affiliated colleges have given consent forms to all students to get it signed from their parents/guardians. The parents/guardians are not ready to sign the consent letter as it clearly imposes the entire responsibility upon the parents/guardians of the students and they are allowed to appear in the off line examinations at their own risk and responsibility.
• Many students belong from far off areas like Jammu & Kashmir, and protest affected areas like Delhi-NCR.
• Various universities in India i.e. Punjab University, Amity university, Delhi University and even IIT's and NIT's are taking online exams and the same pattern must be followed by AKTU.
• The University is not taking responsibility of the health and wellbeing of its students and instead has made it clear in the notification that students will be responsible for their own health and wellbeing.

The Petitioner-students are represented by Advocate Dr. Vipin Gupta. Plea drafted by Advocates Krishna Kumar and Nandani Gupta.