Describing Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s announcement about cancellation of University examinations as ‘unprecedented’ and made ‘without any profound thinking on the legal repercussions’, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Tuesday asserted that as the Chancellor of Universities, he had the final authority over all University matters as per the provisions of Maharashtra Public Universities Act.

In what appeared to be a brewing confrontation between the chief minister and the Governor, Koshyari conveyed Uddhav that decision regarding holding of the examinations of final year students ‘shall be taken in consonance with the provisions of the Act’.

Flagging the university examinations issue for the second time during the last 11 days, the Governor said that he was ‘surprised’ to learn through media reports that the former had declared that ‘no examinations shall be conducted this year’, while he was still awaiting a response to his letter to the Chief Minister.

The Governor wrote that even though the Committee of Vice Chancellors constituted by the Minister for Higher and Technical Education to analyse the situation and to explore various options available to conduct the examinations had given its report to the Secretary, Higher and Technical Education Department on 6th May 2020, the same had not been presented to him till date.

The Governor pointed out that during his video conference with Vice Chancellors, all the vice chancellors of state universities had communicated their preparedness for conducting their respective examinations.  The Governor stated that he had clearly mentioned that the Chancelllor’s office shall give further directions after accepting the recommendations of the Committee partially or fully once the report was received by him.

“The arbitrary decision has violated the basic principle that to obtain an identical degree, there cannot be two sets of criteria, one who has given examination and for the other who has obtained marks on average. The examinations cannot be made optional”, wrote the Governor.

Maintaining that the students of Medicine, Architecture, Law, etc needed to register themselves with their respective professional bodies / councils after completion of professional course so as to get their licence to practice, the Governor stated that these bodies may not be able to register the students without them being evaluated on established parameters.

The Governor noted that the Ministry of Home Affairs had given approval and issued guidelines to conduct examinations to various state boards and that CBSE and ICSE are in the process of conducting their examinations in spite of the COVID situation. He said that if other Boards can conduct examinations for younger children, then the Universities can conduct their examinations as well.

In his letter, the Governor has mentioned that the UGC and other central authorities are of the view that the final year examination may not be dispensed with and that therefore the State Government should abide by UGC guidelines alongwith the provisions of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 2017.

It may be recalled that on May 22, the Governor had taken a strong objection to a letter written by state Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant’s letter to the University Grants Commission (UGC), recommending cancellation of final year examination of students.

The Governor had asked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to take steps  to hold final year examination of students of universities in the state ‘without any further delay in the larger interest of students”

Taking a strong objection to Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant’s letter to  the UGC recommending cancellation of final year examination of students, the Governor asked the Chief Minister to issue suitable instructions to the Minister for his ‘unwarranted intervention’ which according to him was in ‘violation of UGC guidelines and also the relevant provisions of the Maharashtra Public Universitis Act, 2016’.

The Governor had lamented t6hat he was not apprised by the Minister in the matter before recommending the cancellation of final year examination to the UGC.

The Governor had said that as per provisions of the relevant Universities Act, Universities have the power and duties to hold examinations and confer degrees upon successful students.  He noted that it would not be ‘ethical or appropriate’ to award degrees to final year students without conducting their examinations, which results into violation of the provisions of the Universities’ Act.