The High Court of Delhi has asserted that it would not interfere with Delhi University’s decision to hold open book online exams for final year students. However, it asked the varsity, the UGC and the Centre to work out on a solution to also enable disabled students to participate in the examinations.
The court also asserted that it was not going to interfere with DU’s decision as it has already decided to hold offline physical exams, once the present coronavirus situation improves, for those students who could not participate in the examinations commencing from July 1.
With this, it added that meanwhile all the students should prepare for the open book examinations, scheduled to commence from July 1, and not assume that it would be delayed due to ongoing proceedings.
The Delhi High Court, in its order passed on June 9, asserted that it was only looking to iron out problems being faced by persons with disabilities in participating in the exams and added that their difficulties would be addressed by the time the examinations commence.
A Bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon gave the varsity, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Centre time till June 11 to work out a solution after meeting representatives of students with various disabilities, including visual impairment, and listed the matter for hearing on June 12.
The above mentioned Bench also asked the Centre, UGC and DU to consider having another set of question papers ready to hold exams immediately after the open book examinations for those who could not sit for it, reports, The Hindu.
The following order came on a petition filed by the National Federation of the Blind challenging the DU’s decision to hold open book examinations on the ground that it violated rights of students with visual impairments and other disabilities.
The Federation desired Delhi University to assess performance of the disabled students of final year on the basis of their performance in previous semester and internal assessment. On the alternative, it recommend holding offline exams for such students after colleges reopen.
