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UGC Exam Guidelines 2020: SC says states can’t promote students without exams, deadline can be altered
UGC Guidelines for University Exams 2020 News Updates: The apex court in its verdict said that the states can approach the exam conducting agency for an extension of deadline, however, students could not be promoted without the term-end exams
By: Education Desk | New Delhi |Updated: August 28, 2020 2:31:39 pm
The Supreme Court of India. (Express Photo: Praveen Khanna)
UGC Guidelines for University Exams 2020 News Updates: The Supreme Court on Friday said that states and universities cannot promote students without holding final year exams. The court, however, added that they can approach UGC to seek an extension of deadline for holding exams. Earlier, the University Grant Commission guidelines asked universities to hold exams by September 30.
Refusing to quash the July 6 UGC guidelines, the court also said that if any State Disaster Management Authority has decided to postpone exams in view of the situation, that will prevail.
The UGC had earlier said that the July 6 guidelines are based on 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.
The Commission had told the top court that its directive, asking universities and colleges to conduct final year exams by September 30 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, is “not a diktat” but states cannot take the decision to confer degrees without holding the examinations.
Upholding the UGC decision, a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said if any state feels they can’t conduct exams by that date, they must approach the UGC for new dates to hold the exam.
Assailing the decisions of some states like Maharashtra and Delhi to cancel final year examinations, the UGC had said that such decisions directly affect 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.
The apex court was earlier told by one of the petitioners that nobody is against the university examinations in “normal times” and the students are challenging the UGC’s decision because of the pandemic. The UGC had said 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 was “not binding”.
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