University Free To Hold Exams For 1st, 2nd year Students: SC

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday said that Universities were free to conduct examinations for the semester or terminal examinations for promoting the first and second-year students in undergraduate or postgraduate courses.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy, and MR Shah said, “The University Grants Commission (UGC) has left it to the discretion of the Universities to conduct examinations for the 1st and 2nd-year students. If they want to hold the examination, we can’t stop them. This is not a ground for judicial review.”

The Court was hearing a PIL filed by a student Ayush Yesudas who claimed that as per the UGC Guidelines of April 27, 2020 students in the 1st and 2nd year of undergraduate/postgraduate courses have to be assessed purely on basis of internal assessment and not an examination. This decision was taken in view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases across the country.

The bench said that this issue was dealt with by its August 14 judgment where it upheld the UGC’s July 6 Guideline mandating examinations for the final year students in UG/PG courses. At the same time, Universities were given the freedom to hold examinations for promoting students n the previous years.