The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed the Delhi University to conduct online open book examinations for final year undergraduate students from August 10 amid the coronavirus outbreak, PTI reported.
Justice Prathiba M Singh declined students’ petition to stay the exams, but passed a slew of directions to address the concerns raised by them. She directed the Delhi University and the University Grants Commission to comply with the directions for final-year undergraduate courses. The court said question papers have to be uploaded on the university’s portal and sent to students through email. They must also be given extra time to upload answer sheets and an auto-generated email confirming the receipt of the same has to be sent to students, the court said.
Singh also directed the Delhi University to ensure that the centralised email ID has enough capacity to receive all responses from the students, Bar and Bench reported. Additionally, a grievance officer will address the problems raised by the students and the complaint will be sent to a Grievance Committee if it is not solved. Former Delhi High Court Judge Pratibha Rani will chair the committee, the court said. The details of all the nodal officers, central ID, participating colleges and concerned officers have to be published by August 8.
The Delhi University should also simultaneously send the answer sheets to teachers for early declaration of results, Singh added. “I wish all the students as well as the university all the best for conducting the exams,” she said after pronouncing the order.
The matter will heard on September 22 to ascertain if the court’s directions were followed.
Advocate Akash Sinha, counsel for the petitioners, had argued that the online examination was discriminatory for students who have no cyber infrastructure, those stuck in coronavirus quarantine zones and flooded areas of the country. However, advocates Sachin Dutta and M Rupal told the court that this was the best way to conduct exams and a student need not have high technology at his/her disposal.
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