No application of mind while deciding on OBEs, argue DU students in HC
new deLhi: Delhi University students on Tuesday argued before the Delhi High Court that the varsity had shown no application of mind while deciding to conduct the online open-book examination (OBEs), as several intervenors argued before a single-judge bench of Justice Pratibha
M Singh.
Moreover, the university grants commission (UGC), represented by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta was left flustered as their guidelines put together with guidelines of DU's open-book examinations left students in
a lurch.
When the students argued that the time limit criterion set by the UGC and the Delhi University to complete the exams in two to three hours was unreasonable given the lack of access in many parts of the country, the SG said students who are unable to appear for the OBEs can take physical exams.
However, when the court said the UGC guidelines said this window for physical examinations would be open till September, the S-G said that is not the case and students will be allowed to take these exams beyond
September.
Justice Singh then questioned as to when the exams would ever end if this was the case.
Meanwhile, S-G Mehta clarified that the UGC's stand was clear with respect to the fact that internal assessment could not be allowed.
But the students argued that they were being discriminated against for job opportunities as other universities had completed their examinations and they were being robbed of the chance to apply for jobs in time, given the schedule designed by the administration.
The court, while allowing the Delhi University to argue in the case on Wednesday said the varsity would need to respond on five aspects of the matter, which included how much time students will have before the exam to download question papers, where will email addresses be published, publishing faculties and college helpline numbers, and whether the size of uploading answer scripts can be changed beyond 5MB because a chance of pages getting
jumbled.
The court also sought clarity on what happened to the decision to form a committee to look into glitches during
mock tests.
