The Supreme Court on Friday (August 28) ordered that the final year university examinations are to be held this year. It added that no state government and universities can promote final year students without it. The Supreme Court has said that final year university exams will be conducted as per the rules of the University Grants Commission(UGC).
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said if any state feels they can’t conduct exams by that date. The state can approach the UGC for new dates to hold the exam. Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah delivered the ruling through video-conferencing.
On July 20, more than a dozen students had moved the apex court against UGC. The students’ plea was against the University Grants Commission’s decision to make final-year exams compulsory. UGC was asking institutes to conduct final year exams by September 30. But the petitioners want the final year candidates to be assessed based on the performance in the previous semesters.
State governments like Maharashtra, Odisha, Delhi, and West Bengal had challenged the decision of the UGC to make it mandatory to conduct exams by September 30. However, UGC opposed this move, they said that the state government cannot decide to cancel the examinations. They further added that students will not get their degrees if exams are not conducted.
On July 30, UGC had informed the SC that if students are unable to appear for the examinations by September 30, he/she will be given an opportunity to appear at a specially conducted exam at a later date.
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