Supreme Court will be conducting a hearing today on pleas opposing UGC’s guidelines to universities to conduct the final year examination before September 30. In the previous hearing on August 14, parties who are opposing the guidelines issued by the UGC made a case for the postponement.

Further Read: UGC says states can request for deadline extension; SC reserves judgement

A different bench in SC yesterday dismissed the petition to postpone the JEE Main and NEET 2020 exam scheduled in the month of September. The bench said that any postponement of the exam will put the careers of the students in peril. It also said that it has taken account of the NTA’s preparedness for the exam and said that Court has no grounds to interfere on the policy decision.

In the previous hearing for UGC guidelines case, Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who was representing 31 students who had filed the plea, argued that the cases of COVID-19 is increasing exponentially and conduct of exams would affect the health of the students. He also highlighted the MHA’s stance that all educational institutions must remain closed since the onset of the pandemic.

Senior Counsel Shyam Divan who was representing Yuva Sena also pointed out the MHA guidelines on educational institutions and said that these guidelines are the minimum standards and states are not allowed to dilute it further. He also said that UGC guidelines are advisory in nature and universities have the option to make their own plans.

Last week the Centre had clarified that UGC had received its permission before issuing the guidelines for the conduct of the final year exam. The Ministry said that the decision to allow the exams was taken in the academic interest of the students.

Petitions for the cancellation of the university exam has been filed by a group of 31 students from different states and universities. A separate petition has been filed Yuva Sena led by Aditya Thackeray, Yash Dubey, and others.

The state of Maharashtra and Delhi had challenged UGC’s guidelines to the universities to conduct the final year examinations. These states have issued orders to cancel all university exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

UGC had said in earlier hearings that the Commission has the authority to confer degrees to the students. States’ do not have an authority to cancel the exams. It also instructed students to continue preparing for the exams and not assume that the exams are going to get cancelled or postponed.