UGC guidelines challenged: SC to continue hearing pleas opposing September final year exams
The Supreme Court will continue hearing pleas challenging UGC guidelines that mandate final year examinations by September-end amid the COVID-19 pandemic today. The hearing is expected to begin post 11 am. During the previous hearing, the UGC had questioned the decisions of Delhi and Maharashtra governments to cancel final year exams of state universities, saying that they were against the rules. The top court bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan had granted time to the UGC to file responses to the affidavits filed by Maharashtra and Delhi in the matter. Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, appearing for some of the petitioners, said that the academic interest of a few students cannot outweigh the right to health and life of lakhs of students. "MHA/UGC have overlooked alarming COVID-19 crisis, poor health infrastructure and deadly flood. Their decision to conduct final exam is illegal and unconstitutional. SC will set it aside," he said.
What happened during the previous hearing
- Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava said that the July 6 guideline for holding exams are neither legal or constitutionally valid.
- The advocate also raised the issue regarding guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for educational institutions amid the pandemic.
- Citing decisions of Maharashtra and Delhi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the apex court bench that states cannot change the rules of the University Grants Commission as only the UGC is empowered to prescribe rules for conferring degree.
- SG Mehta also argued that not conducting exams will not be in the interest of students and degrees may not be recognised if the states would act unilaterally.
UGC files affidavit in SC
- The UGC filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court on August 13. The regulatory body told the apex court that final examination is a "crucial step" in the academic career of a student and the state government cannot say that its July 6 directive, asking universities and colleges to conduct final year exams by September 30 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was "not binding."
- The UGC said the July 6 guidelines are based on the recommendations of experts and have been made after due deliberation and it is wrong to claim that it will not be possible to conduct the final examinations in terms of the guidelines.
- “That apart, the state govt (Maharashtra) avers that the next academic session must begin in the interest of students, while, at the same time, contending that the final examinations should be cancelled and degrees can be awarded without such examinations even though such a step would irreparably damage the future of students.
- Such contentions by the state govt are clearly therefore meritless.”
- Replying to Maharashtra's affidavit, the UGC said it is "entirely wrong" to say that its revised guidelines of July 6 are "not binding on the state government and its universities."
- “In its common counter affidavit, the UGC has already emphasized and justified the need for conducting final examinations, be it in the form of program-ending terminal semester examination or final annual examination, because it is a crucial step in the academic career of a student."
- The UGC said the guidelines provide sufficient flexibility to the universities or institutions for conducting the final year or terminal semester exams and it had duly consulted the stakeholders before issuing it.
- It said that Maharashtra's affidavit is "contradictory to its own claim that the prevailing circumstances are allegedly such that universities/institutions cannot function even to hold final examinations. "Needless to say, those alleged circumstances should then prevent even the commencement of the next academic session."
- In its reply to the affidavit filed by Delhi government, the UGC said it has taken the policy decision to conduct final year or terminal semester exams in the interest of students across the country after duly considering the prevailing situation of a pandemic. Earlier too, the commission had said that such decisions directly affect the standards of higher education and will be an encroachment on the legislative field of coordinating and determining the standards of higher education that is exclusively reserved for Parliament under Schedule VII of the Constitution.