In a major development, the Supreme Court of India has ruled that Universities across the country are allowed to hold exams for 1st and 2nd Year Students. The exams will be held according to UGC Guidelines issued on 6th July 2020.
The apex court provided clarification regarding the extent of applicability of the UGC Guidelines during the hearing of a petition filed by an IGNOU student.
According to the order passed by the top court, UGC has given the discretionary powers to decide whether exams for intermediate semester students should be held or not. The plea was heard by a 3 judge bench of Supreme Court comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah.
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In their order, the bench noted that court can’t start deciding whether examination is necessary or not. It also noted that IGNOU’s decision to hold intermediate semester exams ‘doesn’t violate the UGC’s July 6 guidelines. The decision may lead to other universities also deciding in favour of holding exams for intermediate semester students in the different modes permitted by the Commission.
Earlier, hearing a separate plea, the apex court had also ruled that the all universities will have to mandatorily hold exams for Final Year / Final Semester students in line with the Guidelines released by the UGC on 6th July 2020.
