Degree without Exam: High Court says UGC be made party to PIL

On Tuesday, the High Court of Bombay directed that the University Grants Commission (UGC) be made a party to a Public Interest Litigation challenging the Maharashtra Govt's decision to issue degrees without holding final year exams.

Owing to coronavirus & lockdown, the State Govt cancelled final year examinations & decided to issue degrees on the basis of students' performance in earlier semesters.

Dhananjay Kulkarni, a retired teacher & Ex-University senate member from Pune, has filed PIL against the decision.

The PIL challenged the June 19, 2020, Government Resolution (GR).

Dhananjay Kulkarni said that under the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, the Chancellor has the jurisdiction & the state has no power to take a decision about exams.

The UGC, on April 27, directed all the universities to conduct exams, but after a student organisation wrote to the state Minister of Higher & Technical Education, the exams in Maharashtra were postponed & later canceled, the PIL said.

As per the GR, there are 7,34,516 students enrolled in final years of non-professional courses & 2,83,937 students in final years of professional courses in Maharashtra.

The students who have cleared all previous semesters & do not want to appear for the last semester exam should give in writing that they do not want to appear for final exams, the GR said.

Such students will be awarded final year scores based on the average of marks of previous semesters, it said.

The Government Resolution added that students can take optional exam later (if they wish to improve their score).

Advocate Uday Warunjikar, petitioner's lawyer, argued that this dual assessment method had no logic & it can not be adopted while granting degrees.

After hearing brief arguments, a division bench of Justices A A Sayed & M S Karnik said the UGC should be made a respondent, & adjourned the hearing on July 17.

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