Delhi High Court
Anupam & Ors. vs University Of Delhi Through Its ... on 7 July, 2020
SINDHU KRISHNAKUMAR
08.07.2020 12:32
$~12
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Date of decision: 7th July, 2020
+ W.P.(C) 3946/2020 and CM APPLs. 14163/2020, 14164/2020,
14165/2020, 14172/2020
ANUPAM & ORS. ..... Petitioners
Through: Mr. Akash Sinha, Mr. Shubham
Saket, Mr. Indrajeet Singh and Mr.
Gaurav Prakash Shah, Advocates.
Mr. Shivankar Sharma, Advocate for
Intervenors.
versus
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI THROUGH ITS
REGISTRAR & ORS. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Sachin Datta, Sr. Advocate with
Mr. Mohinder Rupal and Mr. Hardik
Rupal, Advocates for University of
Delhi.
Ms. Sunita Ojha, Advocate for UOI.
Mr. Apoorv Kurup and Ms. Nidhi
Mittal, Advocates for R-2 UGC.
Mr. Vinay Gupta, Dean
(Examinations), University of Delhi.
Dr. Sanjeev Singh, Joint Director, DU
Computer Centre.
CORAM:
JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH
Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)
1. This hearing has been held through video-conferencing.
2. Mr. Apoorv Kurup, ld. counsel appearing for the UGC, at the outset,
submits that in view of the order passed yesterday, an emergency meeting of
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the UGC was held, wherein the revised guidelines have been published. As
per the revised guidelines, the Universities are required to complete the
examination by September, 2020. This guideline has been issued keeping in
mind the interests of students including their health, equal opportunity and
also their academic credibility and career opportunities. However,
Universities are free to adopt their own schedule for conduct of
examinations.
3. Further to the orders passed in this matter on 6 th July 2020, Prof.
Vinay Gupta, Dean (Examinations) has joined the hearing. In so far as
preparedness of University of Delhi, to conduct the examinations from 10th
July, 2020 is concerned, he has stated as under:-
(i) The total number of students who are studying in the final year
of University of Delhi are approximately 2.45 lakhs. Out of the total
number, approximately 1.86 lakh students are from Delhi and
approximately 59,000 students are from outside Delhi. Prof. Vinay
Gupta submits that in the first three days of the mock tests,
approximately 1.58 lakh students registered for the mock tests and are
likely to take the online examination.
(ii) That the date sheets for all the courses have already been
released by the University for the examinations to be conducted. The
examinations for various subjects would commence on 10th July, 2020
and the last date for closing of the examinations would be 4th August
2020. Only in respect of Chemistry and Library Sciences courses, the
date sheet is yet to be announced. However, by giving a one week
notice period to the students, the date sheet for these subjects would
also be announced and the same would be within the overall deadline
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of 4th August, 2020.
(iii) In so far as the examination portal is concerned, Prof. Vinay
Gupta, under instructions from Dr. Sanjeev Singh, Joint Director, DU
Computer Centre, submits, that the same is quite robust and is capable
of catering to 80,000 students at a time. However for each exam, the
traffic is not likely to be more than 20,000 - 22,000 students.
(iv) In case there is any technical glitch, due to which the portal is
not accessible to students, the students can obtain the question paper
by writing an e-mail to the email address already provided. The
question paper would then be sent by e-mail. For the purposes of
uploading answer sheets as well, an e-mail address has been provided.
The email address provided is [email protected] In case the
portal is not accessible, the answer sheet can also be e-mailed to the
respective faculty/college, as well as to the centralized server.
(v) In case students have any technical glitch or there is a delay in
uploading of the answer sheets due to late receipt of the question
paper or due to technical difficulties, a small time window would be
left open for the answer sheet to be sent on e-mail. The said email
would be referred to a Committee, which would look into the matter
and upon ensuring that the technical glitch and all the reasons for late
submission are genuine, the Committee would proceed to accept the
answer sheet. It is submitted that, if there is a delay of about 30
minutes, the answer scripts would be accepted.
(vi) In so far as the remaining schedule for the examination is
concerned, it is stated that since the situation is extraordinary due to
Covid-19, only the tentative schedule can be given at this stage.
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Accordingly, he submits that the evaluation of papers is likely to
commence form the first week of August and conclude by mid-
September for all the courses. He states that by the first week of
October all results would be declared. For the courses which are
manually operating, such as for the law faculty, sociology department
and some other post graduate departments, the mark sheets would be
released within 15 days of the declaration of results. For all the other
courses, the mark sheets would be available immediately.
4. To show the preparedness of Delhi University for conducting the
online examination, Mr. Sachin Datta, ld. Sr. counsel submits that during the
mock tests, more than 4.85 lakh question papers have been downloaded and
attempted, and 4.68 lakh files have been uploaded successfully. This shows
that the students are able to access the mock tests as also upload the
documents.
5. It is also submitted that the 5MB limitation is only on a per page basis
and if there is more than one page, the 5MB limitation would be applied for
each page and thus the limit of 5MB ought not to be mistaken by the
students. Though one file has to be the size of 5MB, multiple files of under
5MB can be uploaded and there is no limit which has been fixed, as to the
number of files that may be uploaded.
6. Ms. Sunita Ojha, ld. counsel appearing for the Ministry of HRD,
submits that in so far as Union of India is concerned, all the Universities are
autonomous in nature. They are free to follow the schedule for examinations
that they wish to, so long as the overall deadline of end of September, 2020
is adhered to by the University.
7. On behalf of the Petitioner students, Mr. Akash Sinha, ld. counsel,
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submits that the stand of the UGC, MHRD and Ministry of Home Affairs is
contradictory in nature. Inasmuch as on the one hand UGC and HRD
Ministry have stated that the guidelines of UGC are not binding and
autonomous institutions can take their own decisions. However, the MHA
has announced yesterday that the holding of exams would be binding. He
further submits that the difficulties which are faced by students from far-off
states has not been considered by the Delhi University, as even yesterday as
well as this morning, large number of students have faced several technical
difficulties and are unable to upload their answer sheets.
8. Mr. Shivankar Sharma, ld. counsel appearing for Intervenors submits
that various students from SAARC countries including Bangladesh and
Nepal are also facing difficulties of access as well as technical glitches.
9. It is also submitted on behalf of the Petitioners, that one student can
log in from multiple devices using the same user ID and hence, there is a
very big chance of impersonation etc also taking place, and the Dean and
Technical staff ought to address these issues.
10. Ld. counsel for Intervenors also submits that it is not clear as to how
the anonymisation of the answer sheets would be done, as every sheet has to
have the name of the candidate and their roll number.
11. Mr. Sanjeev Singh, submits that in so far as multiple devices is
concerned, the said facility has been made available to students who may
find that during the course of the exam, any of their devices were to fail. It
is the students' responsibility to ensure that their login ID and password
remain confidential and the availability of multiple devices has been
provided, for the facility of the students.
12. Prof. Gupta further submits that in so far as the post graduates
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students are concerned, while effort would be made to declare all the results
as early as possible, if there are any specific post graduate students who
have obtained admissions in any foreign universities where the deadline
would be fast approaching, such students can make a representation to the
University well in time to declare the results in a sealed cover or on a
confidential basis, for which there is a clear procedure available in Delhi
University. Results of such posts graduate students would be declared on a
confidential basis and the same can be used for the purpose of their foreign
admissions and for Visa processing etc.
13. In so far as undergraduate courses are concerned, where students may
obtain admission to post graduate courses in foreign universities, students
may write an e-mail to the Dean (Examinations) informing him of the said
admissions, in which case, efforts would be made to expedite the results of
such courses. The said e-mails may be sent by the earliest at
[email protected]
14. It is again reiterated that the question papers would be automatically
e-mailed by the portal, to all the students, who have registered, once the
examination begins. In so far as uploading the answer sheet is concerned, if
the same is not possible on the portal, the answer sheets can be e-mailed to
[email protected]
15. List on 8th July, 2020 at 4.00 pm in order for Prof. Gupta to confirm
that the examination schedule and date sheet which has now been released
shall be adhered to. Secondly, issue notice to MEITY, UOI. Ms. Ojha,
appearing for the Union of India, shall seek instructions from MEITY in
order to ensure the availability of Common Service Centres (CSCs) across
the country, for students to be able to take exams in all the shifts i.e.,
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7.30am, 11.30 am and 3.30 pm. A responsible official from the MEITY shall
also join the hearing through video conferencing tomorrow at 4:00pm. Prof.
Gupta and Mr. Sanjeev Singh shall also appear tomorrow, along with the
representative of MEITY.
PRATHIBA M. SINGH
JUDGE
JULY 07, 2020
MR/A
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