Final year exams: SC gives states, UGC three days to submit written arguments

Four states and Union territories – Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal and Odisha – Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to direct the University Grants Commission (UGC) not impose the final year examination on lakhs of university students during an ongoing pandemic. The apex court has concluded the hearing but deferred a judgement on the issue.

States said they were not consulted before finalizing the UGC guidelines. They also argued that state governments have the power to take health related decisions in the interest of people and the UGC exam guidelines interfere with their rights.

A three judge bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and B.R Gavai heard all the parties for almost four hours. The bench gave states and the UGC three days time to submit their final written arguments. The court shall also decide whether the states have power under Disaster Management Act to defer final examination till situation normalizes in contradictions to UGC’s guidelines.

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar representing Maharashtra submitted that the state is the worst affected and highlighted two issues -- first, he submitted that “there is nothing arbitrary in a University taking a decision against UGC. If IIT can do that, others can too.”

Secondly, he argued that direction of UGC to all Universities to hold exam it at any cost by 30 Sept is a complete violati of its powers and is outside the scope of the powers of UGC. “It is ultra vires of UGC to mandate the exams to be held by Sept 30,” said Datar.

Advocate General of Odisha highlighted that it would be a herculean task for the hostels to accommodate students since colleges have been closed since March and house owners will not be willing to accommodate students. He added, “We have been writing to the government to make them understand this situation.”

UGC on 6 July had announced that colleges and universities will need to conduct final year and final semester exam by end September. And such exams can be conducted in offline (pen and paper), online or blended (online + offline) mode. The apex education regulator had then said that its decision not to scrap the final semester and final year exams is based in academic prudence and need for maintaining credibility.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing UGC, said, “First the Bench needs to decide who is superior. I don’t want to make this into a Centre v. State argument. But, let us look at the UGC Act and its powers.” He argued that the UGC guidelines are issued under the UGC Act and they have statutory force hence binding. He added, the universities can seek for deferment of the examinations but cannot grant degrees with examination.

During the hearing, the court asked Mehta, whether UGC can override a state where a certain situation is existing and mandate for conducting examination.

“In West Bengal, we don’t have campus centres. There are different centres which need to be booked and would require students to travel and find accommodation across the State….These are special circumstances which affect West Bengal. Metro is not working, local trains are not working. Question of holding exams does not arise. Cannot be done,” submitted senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, representing an association of teachers. He added, “There is also the Cyclone Amphan, which has led to many institutions being turned into shelters. Physical exams in this situation is just not possible!”

Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan, on behalf of Delhi government submitted that there are students who have grandparents, parents at home and they are not even stepping out of the house. Further many of the students don’t have access to books. “The most hard-hit will be the poor, the downtrodden, and those without any access to technology. Unless you decide to give them all Tablets,” said Vishwanathan