GR on final-year varsity exams: Bombay HC says UGC be made party to PIL

A division bench of Justices A A Sayed and MS Karnik said the UGC should be made a respondent and directed the state to respond within a week. (File)

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the University Grants Commission to be made a party in a PIL challenging the Maharashtra government’s June 19 decision to not hold examinations for final-year professional and non-professional courses due to the prevailing coronavirus pandemic.

The PIL, filed by a retired professor and Pune resident Dhananjay Raghunath Kulkarni through advocate Uday Warunjikar, stated the UGC is the regulating authority in such matters, and the state was not empowered to decide the mode of assessment for final year students, and hence the GR should be set aside and quashed.

A division bench of Justices A A Sayed and MS Karnik said the UGC should be made a respondent and directed the state to respond within a week.