Declare results of those who were marked zero in OBE, HC tells DU

The court said the students must submit their application on or before November 30, in writing to the respective nodal officer in the college and inform them about the date of submission of the answer script.

The Delhi high court has directed the Delhi University to declare results on or before December 20 of several final-year undergraduate students who had alleged that they were either marked absent, or given zero entirely in their open book examination.

On specific query from the court, Professor DS Rawat, Dean of Examination, told the court that the evaluation of these answer scripts would have to be done immediately. (Mint)

The court said the students must submit their application on or before November 30, in writing to the respective nodal officer in the college and inform them about the date of submission of the answer script.

On November 26, while hearing a plea seeking declaration of the results, the Delhi University told the court that the students had shared answer sheets through Google Drive and they were not available with the centralised IT department as the drives required access. Hence, such students were marked absent or zero marks were awarded.

The varsity told justice Pratibha M Singh that when students informed that the answer scripts were sent to the nodal officers, a notification was issued on November 19 by the Dean (Examinations) asking such students to write to the respective nodal officer in the college and inform the about the date of submission of the answer script.

“It is only in the case of such students that the nodal officer would have to get the answer script evaluated and have the result of the students sent to the EDP Cell of the examination wing,” the university said.

On specific query from the court, Professor DS Rawat, Dean of Examination, told the court that the evaluation of these answer scripts would have to be done immediately. He assured the court that now a specific time limit would be prescribed to conclude the evaluation, considering that almost 3-4% of students are affected, who have been either marked absent or whose result has been declared as zero. However, no date has been fixed for the declaration of their result.

Following this, the court said, “Considering the timelines as communicated by Prof Rawat, it is directed that, insofar as such students who have already written to the nodal officer and brought it to their notice that they have been was marked absent or their result is awaited/declared zero, if they submit their application in terms of the November 19 notification on or before November 30, 2020, to the respective nodal officers in their colleges, their result would be declared on or before December 20, 2020”.

The court directed that those students who find any discrepancy in their results can apply to the nodal officers by December 10 and within 15 days, thereafter, their results shall also be declared. The judge also asked DU to file an affidavit placing on record the course-wise list of number of students who have been marked absent/zero and whose result has now been converted to ‘awaited’ category before the next date of hearing.

The high court was hearing various students’ grievances that the results of their final year exams, which were conducted in August, have not been declared yet and due to which they are unable to join higher studies. The students had also moved the court on the erroneous result given to them by the University.

During the hearing, the single judge bench was informed by the university that it had declared 75 Undergraduate courses results and only four are remaining. 38 results of post graduate courses have been also declared and only 29 are pending. All these results are likely to be declared by November 30.

It also said that both the two issues of students marked absent or given zero and the deadline to declare the results is already being considered by a division bench. The court posted the matter for further hearing on December 22.

On November 24, the bench of justice Hima Kohli and justice Subramonium Prasad had said that the varsity’s “neck is on board” if it does not meet the deadline of November 30 to declare the results of the final year undergraduate students while hearing a plea seeking a declaration of the results.