DU OBE 2020: Final Year Exams cannot be presentation based, clarifies UGC

The media reports suggest that a single-judge Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh heard the plea challenging the decision of conducting open book examination in Delhi University for final year students.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus followed by the nationwide lockdown imposed in order to contain the virus, made higher education institutes cancel semester exams and promote intermediate students. However, the final year exams are yet to take place. University Grants Commission, UGC clarified that the final year examinations can be online, offline or blended but must be time-bound. The option of presentation based assessment was ruled out by the UGC when addressing the questions in the case challenging Delhi University, DU’s OBE examinations.

The media reports suggest that a single-judge Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh heard the plea challenging the decision of conducting open book examination in Delhi University for final year students.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the UGC and urged the court to defer the case until the matter is addressed in the Supreme Court on August 10. However, as Delhi University is all set to conduct its final year exams in online mode from August 10, the court decided to go ahead with the hearing. Reiterating its stand to conduct final year examination, SG Mehta pointed out that the interpretation of UGC Guidelines is that the examinations have to be time-bound. Mr Mehta stated, “It is to maintain the quality. Somebody may write a dissertation or something if it is not time-bound.”

When asked for further clarification by the Delhi High Court on the possibility of conducting the examinations in other means, as described in the guidelines for the intermediate examination, UGC stated that the exams need to be time-bounded. While the university can take examinations in online or offline or blended mode but simple presentation mode cannot be adapted as examination must be time-bound.

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