Yuva Sena moves Apex court against UGC directive to hold final-year exams

Shiv Sena’s youth wing Yuva Sena, which is led by Maharashtra environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court (SC)

Shiv Sena’s youth wing Yuva Sena, which is led by Maharashtra environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday against the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) decision to hold final-year exams in universities by September-end.

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“Today Yuva Sena has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court with a humble prayer to save lives of lakhs of students, teachers, non-teaching staff and their families by asking the UGC to not be stubborn about enforcing examinations when India has crossed the 10-lakh cases mark,” Thackeray tweeted.

Calling the UGC’s decision “bizarre”, he further wrote, “We believe that academic excellence can’t be judged by 1 examination and for academic excellence, we must calculate the aggregate marks of the past semesters. Beyond which, if students still feel the need to appear for an examination, they voluntarily may do so post-Covid.”

Yuva Sena’s secretary Varun Desai, in a video released on Saturday, said that despite writing to the UGC and the Human Resource Development ministry, the student group did not receive any reply from either of the two authorities.

The Congress, which is in coalition with the Shiv Sena in the state, also supported the latter’s decision.

“Conducting exams in the background of the #COVID-19 is the culmination of insensitivity (sic),” tweeted Satyajeet Tambe, president of the Maharashtra State Youth Congress.