HC gives green signal to DU OBEs

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday gave its nod to the Delhi University for conducting online open-book examinations (OBE) for final year undergraduate courses from August 10-31 with a slew of directions.

Justice Prathiba M Singh said the questions papers must be sent to the students' email ID and uploaded on the varsity's portal and they shall be given an extra hour to upload answer sheets.

The varsity is directed to send an auto-generated email informing the students that their answer sheets have been received, the court said. I wish the students and Delhi University all the best for the exams, Justice Singh said.

Students who will be left out of online exams can appear in physical examinations, to be held in September. The court also directed the Common Service Centres (CSC) to notify all its centres by the end of Friday.

The court added that if the grievance officer is not able to redress students' issues, the matter will be referred to the Grievance Committee under the aegis of Justice Pratibha Rani, which will address the complaint in five days and be functional till OBEs are over.

The court said OBE results ought to be announced in a short period and the answer sheets should be simultaneously sent for evaluation.

It asked DU and the committee to file their respective reports after the exams are over.

The Delhi University Teachers' Association said, "We wish to tell our students that teachers will stand with them... An option for offline exam at a later date does not alter the discriminatory unjust and immoral character of the OBE."

The DUTA added that this verdict, in light of several benches of the high court noting the difficulties of OBEs and DU's unpreparedness was "disappointing".