[Cancellation of arrear exams amid COVID-19] No student will get degree without passing online exam: State assures Madras High Court

The Madras High Court on Thursday took on record the State's assurance that an online exam will be conducted for those college students whose exams were earlier cancelled on account of the COVID-19 pandemic (B Ramkumar Adityan v Principal Secretary and ors, Prof Dr E Balaguruswamy v. The Principal Secretary and ors)..No student will be awarded their degree without first passing such assessment, the State assured. .Last week, a Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had expressed concern that the cancellation of arrear exams through an August 26, 2020 notification appeared to indicate that students were allowed to pass without any assessment. .Allowing students to pass without proper assessment unacceptable: Madras High Court on TN GO cancelling arrear exams amid COVID-19.Advocate General (AG) Vijay Narayan informed the Court on Thursday that an examination will be conducted for all students whose arrear exams were cancelled and that this is likely to be conducted after May 17. "Unless all appear for the online exam as mandated by UGC, we will not be declaring them as pass... without online exam, they won’t get their degrees," he told the Court. .Accordingly, the Court recorded only after completing such online assessment, a candidate will be deemed to have passed. "To repeat, no candidate would have cleared any semester or any arrear exam in terms of the impugned notification of August 26, 2020, without taking an online examination and assessment. It is only after completing such online process and assessment and clearing the same will any candidate be considered to have passed the relevant stage.".The AG today also urged the Court to allow the issuance of certificates for those who had already undertaken such an online exam, given that an earlier interim order of the Court, in this case, had stalled the same. .The Chief Justice added that provisional certificates may also be issued for those yet to take the exam and aspiring to take national-level entrance exams, with a caveat that the award of their college degrees would be subject to their clearing the supplementary exams. This would enable to participate in the entrance process, he orally observed. ."To the extent that a large number of students have undertaken the online exams and have passed the same, appropriate certificates may be issued to them as expeditiously as possible ... To those who seek a provisional certificate, for the purpose of relying thereon elsewhere, the State should promptly issue provisional certificates that ought to certify that the final clearance of student would be subject to the online exam and assessment to be taken by such student," said the order. .Advocate V Sudha, appearing for the University Grants Commission (UGC) submitted that the State may take a call on when the exams may be conducted, keeping in view the local COVID-19 situation. The UGC should be informed of the date, she added. .A petitioner also urged the Court to direct exams to be held offline, wherever possible. He submitted that the slightest move during the conduct of online exams is sometimes reflected as a malpractice. Chief Justice Banerjee, however, responded, "We are in very difficult times. We cannot responsibly ask the authorities to conduct offline. We will leave it to their judgment. We do not know what the situation is. We are in ivory towers.".The order passed by the Court on Thursday was, therefore, confined to recording that online supplementary exams would be conducted for those students who have not taken their arrear exams. The State should make every endeavour to immediately issue final certificates to those who have cleared such exam after participating in the online process, the Court added. ."(With respect to) students who took advantage of the government notification of August 26, 2020 to presume that they would clear any stage without any examination, remedial measures have been put in place so that all candidates have to clear an online exam and have to be assessed thereof. The dates for the relevant exams will be announced by the relevant universities or institutions or the State after consulting the University Grants Commission and obtaining such Commission’s permission in that regard. Since the dates may be fixed after taking the present situation into consideration, UGC should endeavour to permit the dates suggested by the State or relevant institutions to conduct the examinations accordingly," the order stated..The Court urged the State and concerned institutions to complete the process as expeditiously as possible and preferably within eight weeks. A report is to be filed before the Court when the matter is listed next after the summer vacation. .[Read the Order]