Supreme Court bars promotion of students without exam, sets 30 Sept deadline for final year tests in a boost to UGC stand

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that states and universities cannot promote students without holding final year exams by 30 September. Upholding the UGC decision to hold final year exams, a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said if any state feels they can’t conduct exams by that date, they must approach the UGC for new dates to hold the exam. Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena, is one of the petitioners in the apex court and has questioned the UGC’s directive to hold examinations amid the coronavirus pandemic. The UGC had earlier said that the 6 July guidelines are based on recommendations of experts and have been made after due deliberation and it is wrong to claim that it will not be possible to conduct the final examinations in terms of the guidelines. Assailing the decisions of some states like Maharashtra and Delhi to cancel final year examinations, the UGC had said that such decisions directly affect standards of higher education and will be an encroachment on the legislative field of coordinating and determining the standards of higher education that is exclusively reserved for Parliament under Schedule VII of the Constitution.