SC Upholds UGC’s decision to conduct final examinations; Maha government says will abide by the ruling
Pune, August 28, 2020: The apex court of India has put all the speculations over whether the final year examinations will be held or not to rest by upholding the University Grant Commission (UGC) guidelines to conduct the final year examination. The Supreme Court (SC) announced its verdict on the final year examination today. It has agreed to UGC’s point– ‘no degrees without exams’ making it clear that the examinations will be held for the final year students.
Maharashtra State Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant through an online meeting with the press stated that ‘the state government will abide by the ruling.’ Acting on the ruling, the state education minister will be holding a meeting with all university vice-chancellors (VCs), education experts, government authorities and others to design an execution plan on how to conduct the examination. “We will first survey the feasibility of whether the examination can be held by September 30 or not. The mode of examination, whether online or offline hasn’t been decided, we will discuss this tomorrow in the same meeting. We need to understand that different state university is located in different parts like Pune, Nanded, Aurangabad etcetera and have different regional issues that need to be addressed. For which the VCs, experts, academicians will be given two-three days to come up with a plan on how to conduct the examination,” said Samant.
This decision will affect 8-9 lakh students who are to appear for the final year examination across the state. Samant assured that students will be given sufficient time to prepare for the examination and will be notified about the examination schedule well before time.
SC has also acknowledged the fact that many universities and institutes fall in the containment zones and may not be able to conduct the exam by the given deadline of September 30. Therefore, it has advised that state government under the Disaster Management Act can postpone the exams by approaching UGC and appeal to push the examination dates accordingly.
Samant also stated that in tomorrow’s meeting all aspects and possibilities of conducting the examination will be discussed, and considering everyone’s recommendations, objections, and suggestions a final call will be taken. “Also if the experts feel the exams cannot be held by September 30, then we will request the UGC to consider our plea and allow us to postpone the exams for a time period,” he said.
