Will university final year exams be cancelled? Lakhs of students are curious to know the final verdict on the university final year exam mandate as laid down by the UGC in the revised Exam Guidelines for 2020. Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing till August 10, 2020, and refused to pass any interim order.
SC has asked for the Ministry of Home Affairs to stand clear on the issue. The apex court has asked to file the affidavits by August 7 and the rejoinders by August 8, 2020.
“Affidavits to be filed by August 7. Rejoinders after a day post August 7. Matter to be heard next on August 10.” However, the decision on the University final year exams is yet to be taken.
UGC said on July 30, 2020, in its affidavit submitted in the apex court, “All universities and institutions obligated to conduct terminal semester or final year exam by the end of September 2020.”
Meanwhile, on July 6, SC issued a notice of the fact that the new guidelines are not according to the MHA guidelines. It said, “MHA guidelines were of July 20. How can July 6 guidelines take them into account? The purpose of that guideline by MHA did not relate to exams.”
UGC fresh guidelines issued stated that if any student is failed to take the exam held till September 30, they will be given another opportunity to appear at a specially conducted exam at a later date in a bid to not put students in any inconvenience or disadvantage.
Advocate for the students mentioned that the optional exams were problematic. They could create chaos for the students who could not take the main exams.
Initially, UGC had released the Examination Guidelines for the current academic session on April 22 this year. In guidelines, it was mentioned that universities were given time till August 30 to conduct their final year exams for students.
All varsities cancelled the exams for intermediate semesters. But with the surging COVID cases, UGC was asked to revise its guidelines by the MHRD.
Further, it extended the time limit for holding the exams for final year students till September 30.
As per UGC, degrees cannot be granted without examination.
Apart from this, Maharashtra Government had announced the cancellation of university exams, including the final year examinations post the state saw a spike in the number of coronavirus cases.
Read: AMU to pay teachers involved in conducting online exams starting August 5