The Supreme Court Monday directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to respond to the petitions which have challenged the July 6 directive to all the universities and colleges to conduct final year examinations by September 30 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several issues have been raised in the petitions, including plight of lakhs of students in places like Bihar and Assam which are reeling under floods and also that many states have already cancelled the final year examinations of state universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said that replies be filed by UGC and the Centre on the pleas and posted the matter for hearing on July 31.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah, that they are only concerned with final year exams and out of over 800 universities in the country, 209 have completed the examinations.
Mehta said that around 390 universities are in the process of conducting the examinations.
