Supreme Court reserves order in final year examinations case

Supreme Court reserves order in final year examinations case

Pune: The Supreme Court on Tuesday has reserved its verdict in the case pertaining to the permit for conducting final year examinations by the universities in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Supreme Court is now likely to announce its decision on this case on Friday as the three-judge bench has stated that further interventions will not be permitted.

Maharashtra and other state governments have opposed the move to conduct exams for final year students, while the University Grants Commission (UGC) has said that these exams will be held at the earliest by September 30.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah heard the arguments for and against the UGC guidelines issued in this case.

The counsel for Yuva Sena argued regarding Maharashtra University Examinations. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Senior Advocate P S Narsimha presented arguments for the UGC's stand on conducting the examination.

The UGC told the court today that the final year university exams can be postponed or delayed but cannot be cancelled entirely. "Degrees cannot be granted without examinations as it was a statutory mandate. Universities may seek to push back the September 30 deadline but cannot decide to cancel the examination," UGC counsel argued before the bench.

Mehta representing UGC stated that under the Disaster Management Act, the Central Government has the final authority to decide. Representing the students, Advocate Datar pointed out that the safety and welfare of the students were of paramount importance.

In the previous hearing, UGC had said that if the state governments go on their own, then the students' degrees might not be recognised by the UGC. Also, UGC had earlier clarified that out of 640 universities in the country, 454 universities had planned for conducting examinations for final year students.

Out of these, 182 universities are such in which students had appeared for exams for some subjects before the COVID-19 outbreak. Hence the universities are ready to conduct exams for the remaining subject. Apart from these, 38 universities had expressed their willingness to conduct entire examinations but we're waiting for further clarity and instructions from the UGC.

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