HC asks DU for its final decision on holding exams

The Delhi high court Tuesday told the Delhi University to apprise the court on whether it would conduct examinations for final-year students after the court was

The Delhi high court Tuesday told the Delhi University to apprise the court on whether it would conduct examinations for final-year students after the court was informed that a high-level meeting was taking place in the wake of a notification issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on conducting exams.

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On Monday, the UGC had brought out a notification asking universities and colleges to “compulsorily” hold final-year exams by the end of September 2020 on offline/online/blended mode.

Justice Pratibha M Singh also directed the varsity to adhere to the examination schedule if the exams are going to be conducted and also issued a notice to the university on a plea by several students who sought cancellation of the examinations.

The DU exams are scheduled to start from July 10 and the evaluation would be done by mid- September. About 2.45 lakh students would participate in the exams.

On Monday, the court had asked DU to give a state-wise data of final-year students who will take the exams. It had also asked the UGC committee to give its report on conducting exams in universities across the country.

At the outset of the hearing, the court was informed by professor Vinay Gupta, dean of examinations, that a high-level meeting of officials of the university, UGC and HRD ministry was underway. He said the meeting was being held to decide the further course of action on examinations in the wake of the notifications issued by the UGC and the ministry of home affairs (MHA).

The MHA, in a letter to the Union higher education secretary, on Monday, permitted the conduct of examinations by universities and institutions across the country.

“There is a possibility that we will have to postpone examinations. The meeting is still underway, the position would be clear only after two or three hours,” Gupta said.

He said the date sheets have already been uploaded on the DU website.

Terming it “unpredictable”, the court sought to know the reason for the postponement, if et al, the exams are called of. “Look at the state of students who will have to appear for the exams. There is no certainty,” the judge remarked.

Prof Gupta told the court that the examination portal is robust and can allow 80,000 students at one time to take the exams. He said 2.45 lakh final-year students would be appearing for the examination of whom 59,000 students were from other states.

He also said 4.86 lakh question papers have been downloaded and attempted in the last few days as a mock drill to check if the preparedness of DU.

During the hearing, the judge sought to know as to whether more time would be granted to students in case there is a delay in downloading the paper due to poor connectivity or other issues. The time allotted for each exam is three hours, including the downloading of question paper and uploading of answer sheets.

He also said a delay in emailing answer sheets cannot be allowed as it would give rise to malpractices. He also said that only in a few places such as Jammu and Kashmir, where the internet connectivity is low, would students be allowed a little more time.

During the hearing, advocate Shivankar Sharma, the counsel appearing for another five students, told the court that many students from SAARC countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal were facing problems in downloading the question papers.

After arguments on the preparedness of DU for conducting the exams, the court posted the matter for further hearing to July 8.