The Supreme Court on Monday, July 27, 2020 issued a notice to the University Grants Commission (UGC) over the various pleas that challenged its guidelines about the holding of final year university exams by September 30. The top court said that UGC needs to file the reply by July 29, Wednesday and the matter will next be heard on July 31 as said by the apex court.  

Read: Supreme Court to hear plea against UGC final year exam guidelines on July 27

The petition was heard by a three-judge bench of the apex court including Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and BR Gavai.

A plea was filed by 31 students from various universities across India who challenged the UGC guidelines in their petition for “being arbitrary as it were compelling students to appear for exams amid COVID-19 pandemic” The plea also seeks directions to the UGC to adopt a CBSE model and conduct an examination at a later date for the students who are not satisifed with the marks awarded on the basis of assessment.

The students, in their petition, had requested the court to cancel the final year exams and added that the results  should be calculated on the basis of their internal assessment or past performance.

As per the Universities Grants Commission “out of the 818 universities, 603 have either conducted the examination or are planning to conduct. While 209 others have already conducted exams, 394 are planning to conduct exams in August or September.”

Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray has also moved the top court on behalf of Yuva Sena, the youth wing of Shiv Sena, against the mandated final year exams in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases.

Source: Times Now

Also read: Supreme Court refuses to hear parents’ plea for school fees waiver