UGC said Delhi “has unilaterally chosen to cancel the final year / terminal semester examinations and graduate students using ‘alternative assessment measures’ in contravention of the UGC’s Guidelines...”.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Thursday termed the decisions of the Maharashtra and Delhi governments to cancel final exams as “void ab initio”.

The UGC said this in reply to affidavits filed by the two governments in the Supreme Court, where petitions challenging the UGC’s direction to universities/institutions to hold the final exams by September-end are pending.

UGC said Delhi “has unilaterally chosen to cancel the final year / terminal semester examinations and graduate students using ‘alternative assessment measures’ in contravention of the UGC’s Guidelines…”.

The decision “encroaches on the legislative field of coordinating and determining the standards of higher education that is exclusively reserved for Parliament…”, the affidavit added.

On Maharashtra’s stand against holding the exams, the UGC said the state’s claim is that the “prevailing circumstances are allegedly such that universities / institutions cannot function even to hold final examination”.

“…those alleged circumstances should then prevent even the commencement of the next academic session. That apart, the State Govt. avers that the next academic session must begin in the interest of students… Such contentions by the State Govt. are clearly therefore meritless.”