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Supreme Court seeks UGC response to pleas against directions to hold final year exams by Sep 30, To hear petitions on July 31
A bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy & BR Gavai directed the Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, to file a common reply for the University Grants Commission(UGC) to the petitions by July 29.
The hearing of the petitions challenging the UGC guidelines, which said that it is mandatory for the universities to conduct final year exams by September 30, was adjourned till Friday dated 31st July 2020 by the SC on Monday.
Previously on July 7, the UGC said that the final term examinations will be held compulsorily either offline or online mode by the end of September 2020.
31 students filled petitions from different universities across India, amongst them are by law student Yash Dubey, Yuva Sena leader Aditya Thackeray, and one student Krushna Waghmare.
They are given the liberty to file their answer to the reply on July 30.
Today four of the petitions were looked by the SC, seeking cancellation of the notification by the Ministry of Human Resources Development and the subsequent UGC Guidelines which mandates the conduction of final year exams by September 30, 2020.
Aditya Thackeray of the Yuva Sena from Maharashtra demanded the UGC that the decision of passing the final years be left to the individual state governments based on the student's earlier performance.
Dr. A M Singhvi, Senior Advocate, representing Yash Dubey gave in that the guidelines of the UGC are "harsh and unworkable". He went on further saying that many states like Maharashtra and West Bengal have had strongly objected to the conduct of examinations amid Coronavirus pandemic.
“Out of 818 universities in India, 394 are in the process of completing exams and 209 have already finished with exams, and 35 have not reached a final year." submitted Tushar Mehta the Solicitor General, appearing for the UGC.
Appearing for the31 students who collectively filled the petition, Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, urged the court to stay the guidelines, by throwing light on the rising number of reported COVID-19 cases in a single day which was more than 50,000 then.
"Forcing such students to appear in the final year University Examination on 30.09.2020, is flagrantly violative of their Right to Life, as enshrined within Article 21 of Constitution of India," they have submitted.
The origin or the formation of these petitions were attempted towards the canceling of examinations for final years amid the pandemic.
Other grievances embossed by the petitioners included –
The petitioners stated that there are many final year students who are tested positive or even their family members are COVID positive. One of the petitioners was COVID positive himself.
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