State cannot promote students without final year examinations, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
However, a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, said if a state felt it could not conduct the examinations by September 30, it must approach the University Grants Commission (UGC) for new dates to hold the examinations.
For any exemptions from the UGC guidelines, states will have to seek permission from it, said the Bench.
The Bench said that decisions taken by State Disaster Management authorities under the National Disaster Management Act (NDMA) shall prevail over the UGC guidelines as regards the deadline of September 30, 2020, for conducting the final exams.
Several petitions, including one by the Yuva Sena, youth wing of Shiv Sena, and governments of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Delhi had called for the exams to be cancelled because of the pandemic.
They argued that students have completed five semesters and had a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), which could be the basis for results without final examinations.
On behalf of the UGC, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had argued that universities could seek extension of the deadline but they could not take a decision to confer degrees without holding examinations.
The national education body University Grants Commission (UGC) had said final year college exams must be held by September 30. The exams are a must to “protect the academic future of students” and degrees cannot be given without examinations, it had said.
