SC denies to pass interim order on pleas for stay of last yr exams
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday refused to pass any interim order on a batch of petitions seeking cancellation of final year/semester examinations in September amid the COVID-19 pandemic and asked the Centre to clear the stand of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on the issue.
The UGC told the top court that nobody should remain under the impression that since the Supreme Court is examining this issue, the final year /semester examination will be stayed.
A bench head by Justice Ashok Bhushan, which conducted the hearing through video conferencing, said that it is not passing any orders on the issue and posted the matters for further hearing on August 10.
The bench, also comprising Justices R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah, was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the UGC, that he would apprise the court about MHA's stand on the issue.
Mehta said they are only concerned with final year exams and out of over 800 universities in the country, 209 have completed the examinations.
He said that around 390 universities are in the process of conducting the examinations.
"Let nobody remain under the impression that since this court is examining this, it will be stayed. Let students continue with their studies," Mehta said.
To this, the bench said, "We are not passing any such order."
The bench also asked counsel for Maharashtra to place before it the June 19 order of the state disaster management committee passed in this regard. "Let the decision (of state disaster management committee of Maharashtra) be brought on record," the bench said. The top court said all the affidavits be filed by August 7.
At the fag end of the hearing, advocate AlakhAlok Srivastava, appearing for some of the petitioners, raised the issue of plight of students in the flood affected areas of Assam and Bihar.
"This is not a case for interim order today," the bench said. "On August 10, we will hear it". On Thursday, the UGC justified its decision directing all universities and institutions to hold final year/semester examinations in September saying it was done to protect the academic future of students across the country.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had filed a 50-page affidavit on a batch of petitions, including the one filed by Shiv Sena's youth wing 'YuvaSena', which have challenged its guidelines issued on July 6 for holding the exams in September amidst the persisting Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
It said that in June this year, considering the evolving situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, it requested the expert committee to revisit the April 29 guidelines, by which it had asked the Universities and Institutions to hold final year examinations in July 2020.
The expert committee submitted a report recommending that terminal semester/final year examinations should be conducted by universities/ institutions by the end of September, 2020 in offline (pen & paper)/ online/ blended (online + offline) mode, the UGC
said.
