Students Move Supreme Court Against UGC Directive To Wrap Final Year Exams By September 30

The Petitioners, including a Covid positive student have pointed out that there are many final year students, who themselves or their family members are COVID positive.

"Forcing such students to appear in the final year University Examination on 30.09.2020, is flagrantly violative of their Right to Life, as enshrined within Article 21 of Constitution of India," they have submitted.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had permitted the conduct of exams by Universities and Institutions vide notification dated July 6, 2020 and had ordered the Universities to compulsorily conduct examination of final year students as per UGC guidelines and Standard Operating Procedure.

Home Ministry Permits Conduct Of Exams By Universities, Institutions

In furtherance of the aforementioned notification, UGC has issued revised guidelines for University examination for terminal semester students whereby it instructed Universities to conduct exams in offline (pen & paper)/ online/ blended (offline + online) mode.

Filed through Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, the plea asserts that usually marksheets/ degrees are awarded to the students by 31^st of July. In the present case however, the examinations will be wrapped up by September 30.

"Due to such belated award of marksheets/ degrees, the Petitioners herein and many other final year students will be deprived from precious opportunities of getting admission in higher courses and/or getting jobs, which will be again violative of Article 14," they apprehend.

It is thus submitted that final year students should also be placed at par with the students of CBSE, ICSE, ISC, NIOS etc. that cancelled their 10^th/ 12^th Board Examinations due to COVID-19 pandemic and declared results on the basis of "past performance/ internal assessment" of students.

On this note, they have sought for a direction to the UGC to complete internal assessment and award final results/ degrees to the successful final year students, on or before July 31, 2020.

Other grievances raised by the Petitioners include:

• Decision to conduct final year examination, was taken by the Respondents in utterly arbitrary and whimsical manner, even without consulting other stakeholders, like Doctors, Teachers, Students, Universities and Colleges etc. and thus the entire genesis of the said Decision, is erroneous and misplaced.
• The Respondents have ignored the plight of lakhs of students belonging to Bihar, Assam and North Eastern States, which are presently witnessing incessant flood
• There is no free movement of Railways and only a selected number of Trains are operating. In such a situation, a student who has to travel to his/ her Examination Centre through public Transport, will have to face immense difficulty.
• Lot of difficulties in getting rented/ PG accommodations across India, as Landlords are unwilling to give such accommodation now a days, due to COVID-19 outbreak.
• Parents of the affected students are facing utmost financial distress due to reduced financial opportunities amid COVID-19 crisis. In such a situation, further burdening them with the cost of Transportation, Accommodation and Medical Treatment of their wards, for appearing in the captioned examination, is utterly unjust, unfair and unwarranted.

On a related note, the Bombay High Court recently issued notices to the State of Maharashtra, University Grants Commission and Bar Council of India in a PIL filed by a law student seeking cancellation of final year examinations during the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19.

Also Read: 'Sheer Violation Of Students' Fundamental Rights': MP Law Students Writes To CJI Against MHA Order Permitting Conduct Of University Exams

Also Read: 'Academic Evaluation & Examinations Cannot Outweigh Lives Of Students': DU Law Student Writes To Delhi HC CJ Against MHA Order Permitting Conduct Of University Exams