The Supreme Court said Thursday that universities are free to take semester exams or terminal exams to promote freshmen and sophomores to undergraduate or graduate courses.
A bench of judges Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah said: “The University Scholarship Commission (UGC) has left it to the discretion of the Universities to conduct exams for 1st and 2nd year students. If you want to take the exam, we can’t stop you. This is not a reason for judicial review. “
The Court was hearing a PIL presented by a student Ayush Yesudas who stated that according to the UGC Guidelines of April 27, 2020, students in the 1st and 2nd year of undergraduate / graduate courses should be evaluated purely on the based on an internal evaluation and not an exam. This decision was made in light of the growing number of COVID-19 cases across the country.
The bank said this issue was addressed by its August 14 ruling, where it upheld the UGC’s July 6 Guide requiring exams for seniors in UG / PG courses. At the same time, universities had the freedom to take exams to promote students in previous years.
The UGC guidelines of April 27 said: “For intermediate semester / year students, universities can take exams, after conducting a comprehensive assessment of their level of readiness, the residential status of students, the status of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in different regions / states and other factors. In case the situation does not seem normal in view of COVID-19, in order to maintain the “social distancing”, the safety and the health of the students, the grade of the students could be composed of 50% of grades based to the boss. internal assessment adopted by universities and the remaining 50% of grades can be awarded based on performance in the previous semester only (if available).
The petitioner quoted this to state: “The COVID-19 situation is still not normal. Performing examinations in these circumstances will amount to a violation of the UGC Guidelines. “
The court dismissed the petition saying: “This Court cannot be expected to start monitoring the examination of each university. Taking the exam does not violate the UGC Guidelines. “
The UGC’s decision to prescribe the mandatory completion of final year exams according to its July 6 decision was challenged in the Supreme Court by associations of university students and professors, as well as political groups such as Yuva Sena. Under the UGC directive, senior exams would take place before September 30 via the Internet, offline, or a combination of both.
In view of the COVID-19 situation, the governments of Delhi and Maharashtra issued orders canceling the exams for seniors and ordered their assessment to be done through an internal assessment. The Court upheld the UGC order ordering exams for seniors. The decision of Delhi and Maharashtra to cancel the exams was upheld. However, the Court held that they cannot issue instructions for the promotion of students, which falls within the jurisdiction of UGC. The Court allowed states to write to UGC requesting a greater extension of time to conduct examinations in light of the COVID-19 situation prevailing in their respective areas.
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