The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued contempt notice to Delhi University for withholding material information from the court and trying to mislead the court over deferment of the open book exam, scheduled on July 1 by another 10 days.
A Bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad said that on the last date of hearing on June 26, the university had submitted that it was “thoroughly geared” up to conduct the examination. Based on the submission, the Bench had expressed its intent to dispose of a petition seeking to cancel or defer the exams for students in the PWD (persons with disabilities) category.
COVID-19 pandemic
However, the very next day after the order had been dictated and could be uploaded on the website, one of the judges came across a press report by Delhi University where it decided to defer the exams “in view of the prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic”.
“This came as a surprise to us, when just a day before, the respondent No4/Delhi University had shown its complete preparedness for conducting the exam,” the Bench said.
The court has questioned the university for failing to inform the Bench about “the developments that took place in less than 24 hours of the hearing in the petition, on June 26”. The university stated that a family member of the Deputy Registrar (Secrecy) had tested COVID-19 positive and it came to know that the entire family had to be quarantined only after the case was over on June 26.
“...then there was enough time for the respondent No.4/Delhi University to have reverted back to this court on the same day or at least the next morning and apprise us of the said developments and the decision taken to defer the examinations by 10 days,” the Bench said while listing the case for further hearing on July 6.