Final Year Exam Guidelines SC Hearing Highlights: As Students Wait For The Final Decision, A Look At Three Key Highlights Of The Case

UGC Guidelines Case SC Hearing: The SC is expected to give its final verdict on the petitions challenging guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on the final year university exams today. Here are three important highlights of the case.

UGC Guidelines Updates: The Supreme Court is expected to announce the final verdict on the petitions challenging the guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on the final year university exams today. Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava also shared the news on his Twitter page and said that SC will hear the case at 10.30 AM on Friday. Students have been waiting for clarity and expected the SC to give a decision un the last hearing held on August 18, 2020. But the court had reserved its verdict and given all the parties three days-time to present their final arguments.

Here are some key arguments made in the case

UGC’s 50-page affidavit- On July 31, during the hearing, the UGC submitted a 50-page affidavit responding to different petitions saying that the academic body will not change its decision as it was based on the assessment by an expert panel.  The UGC also added that decision was taken to ‘protect the academic future of students across the country which will be irreparably damaged if their final year/terminal semester examinations are not held, while also keeping in mind their health and safety.  The UGC also informed that the decision to cancel the exams taken by states such as Delhi and Maharashtra will be considered as contradicting the guidelines and will be detrimental to the standards of higher education.

The affidavit clarified that no student will be forced to give the exams at the cost of their health as the guidelines allow the varsities to hold special exams for students who are unable to participate in exams that will be held by September 2020.

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State vs UGC:  Maharashtra government had informed the Supreme Court on August 7 about the State Disaster Management Authority's decision to not conduct the final exams in the state. However, the academic body had questioned the decision of Maharashtra and Delhi to cancel the final year exams and said the decision by both the states is contradictory especially when the process of admissions for the new academic session is impending. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had also said that it's not in the interest of students to not hold exams. He argued that UGC is the only body that can prescribe rules for conferring a degree, and state governments cannot change the rules. It was also argued that not conducting exams will be against students' future as a uniform admission process will get adversely affected without final year exams

Student health: Questions were raised about the impact of UGC's decision on Student health. Responding to UGC's affidavit, Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava said that the UGC had failed to take into account the worsening Covid 19 situation in the country. 'The respondent UGC has failed to take into account that the Covid-19 has been found to be airborne and there is a strong possibility of the final-year students getting infected while appearing in examinations."It was again raised in subsequent hearing uestions were raised about the impact of UGC's decision on the health of the students. the problems of transportation and the feasibility of the exams since many students have gone back to their homes due to the pandemic were also raised.

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