UGC final year exams can only be postponed, not cancelled: SC

New Delhi: Announcing its verdict on a batch of petitions demanding UGC final year exams to be cancelled, the Supreme Court ruled that the said exams can only be postponed. The verdict stated that students cannot be passed based on previous semester results.

While it quashed the petitions demanding cancellation of final year exams, it also directed that the UGC guidelines to conduct all final year PG and UG examinations by September 30th can be discounted.

It ruled that the direction of a state's Disaster Management Authority will prevail over the UGC guidelines, but not in a way that exams are cancelled. The SC ruled that the deadline to conduct exams by September 30th can be altered where necessary.

The bench also gave freedom to state and union territories to approach the Supreme Court to seek postponement of the final year exams in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After hearing elaborate arguments from all sides on August 18th, a three-judge bench, comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy, and MR Shah announced the judgement on August 28th.

In the previous hearings, a total of 31 petitions were heard by the UGC that demanded cancellation of exams. The petitions were filed by students and requested that physical presence for an examination during a raging pandemic is against their right to life. It also sighted that since classes were disrupted in the middle of courses, conducting exams without required number of classes is unreasonable.