DU’s second round of exams from Sept 14 will be in both in offline and online modes

In an affidavit filed before the bench of justice Hima Kohli and justice Subramonium Prasad, the varsity said the examination, which is being conducted for students who did not appear in the first leg of OBE, held from August 10-31, will be conducted in both modes, even though the format, which is OBE, remains the same.

The Delhi University on Wednesday informed the Delhi high court that the second leg of the open book examination (OBE) for the final-year students, slated to begin from September 14, will be conducted in both online and offline modes so that students can choose the mode they prefer.

Hindustan Times

In an affidavit filed before the bench of justice Hima Kohli and justice Subramonium Prasad, the varsity said the examination, which is being conducted for students who did not appear in the first leg of OBE, held from August 10-31, will be conducted in both modes, even though the format, which is OBE, remains the same.

It said the exams would start from September 14 and end on October 1. Earlier, the high court, while hearing pleas by law student Prateek Sharma and the National Federation for Blind, seeking to set up effective mechanisms for visually impaired and the specially abled students, had asked the varsity to hold offline examinations from September 14.

It said students can take the exams by coming to the examination centres in the city. However, students who cannot reach the city due to the pandemic and other issues would have the option of appearing in the second leg of the OBE remotely.

The varsity also said the specially abled students, who want to better their scores, can also appear in the examination and they would be given five hours to complete the test.

The varsity told the court that the arrangement has been made in light of the revised guidelines on the academic calendar and examinations issued by University Grants Commission (UGC) on July 6 which has laid down provisions for the universities to conduct examinations in a blended (a mix of online and offline) mode for final-year students as a one-time measure in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

DU also said the undergraduate results of the first leg of OBE shall be notified from the last week of September through the last week of October.

“Since the undergraduate courses are based on credit system and the results are prepared through relative grading, the processing of results can’t be started until all answer scripts have been evaluated and their marks/awards have been entered into the results portal,” the affidavit read.