The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday told the Supreme Court that any decision by individual states to award degrees to final-year students of undergraduate and postgraduate courses without conducting exams would per se be illegal and invalid.

Appearing for UGC, solicitor-general Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan that Maharashtra and Delhi, which had decided to cancel the final-year exams and award degrees on the basis of their internal assessment, could not do so because they were bound by the UGC guidelines to complete the exams either offline, online or a blend of both before September 30.

“Delhi and Maharashtra have taken the decision to cancel exams in state universities. That is against the UGC rules. UGC is the only body that can prescribe rules for conferring a degree. States cannot change rules… It’s not in the interest of students to not have exams. Such degrees won’t be recognised if there are no exams,” Mehta told the bench also comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah.

The bench then asked the UGC to file an affidavit justifying its stand that Maharashtra and Delhi could not cancel the exams or award degrees under the Disaster Management Act 2005.

It posted the matter for further hearing on August 14.

The Delhi government had earlier informed the court that it had decided to cancel all final-year exams on account of the Covid crisis and was not bound by the guidelines issued by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and the UGC mandating the completion of final-year post-graduate and undergraduate exams by September 30. Instead, it wanted to award degrees on the basis of internal assessment marks.

The Maharashtra government had also taken a similar stand.

The apex court was dealing with a raft of petitions seeking quashing of the July 6 circular issued by the MHA and the commission to universities across the country to complete final-year exams by September 30.

Students complained that the order exposed them to severe health risk on account of the pandemic.

Several individual students and youth organisations had filed separate petitions seeking either the postponement of the exams or announcement of final-year results on the basis of internal assessment marks as was done in the case of CBSE and ICSE students.

On June 26, the apex court had cleared the decks for the cancellation of the unfinished CBSE/ICSE board exams for Classes X and XII scheduled from July 1, allowing the respective boards to adopt internal assessment marks as one of the criteria for declaration of results in view of the pandemic.

In the present case, the petitioners have essentially challenged the MHA notification dated July 6 providing for the compulsory conduct of final term examination by universities and institutions and the revised guidelines on examination and academic calendar for the universities issued by the UGC on the same day.

Vacant medical seats

Another bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a petition seeking the filling up of 3,373 post-graduate medical seats under the All India Quota in NEET 2020 that have been vacated by the original allottees.

The original allottees had vacated the seats after securing seats in AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh and JIPMER Puducherry.

The petition filed by Dr Raghuvir Saini and other aspirants had contended that if the vacant All India Quota seats were not filled by the MCI and other authorities, then they would be reverted to the respective state quotas.