The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and University Grants Commission (UGC) to work in tandem to ensure a career of close to 2 lakh students writing CBSE compartment exams does not suffer. The compartment exams of CBSE which began today will continue till September 29. Meanwhile, compartment students giving this examination, close to 2 lakh, had requested Court to ensure that results are declared early so that they do not lose out on admission to colleges this year. The UGC informed the Court on Tuesday that the cut off date for closing admissions has been finalized and is likely to be announced today.
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During the hearing, the top court earlier asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) not to declare the academic calendar till September 24 but was later told that the calendar has been released. Taking a serious view of the release of the academic calendar, the top court sought an explanation from the UGC, to be given on Thursday, and directed that it be placed on record. At what time and which date it was released, you will have to show this,” the bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna said. “Don’t give us vague dates. Give us the date and time when it was released. Whether it was after the order, before the order, or when the matter was being heard. We will examine that,” it added.
The bench was hearing two PILs by one Anika Samvedi and Shivam Kumar. The first petition sought postponement of compartment exams due to the COVID situation. The other petition only requested the Court to ensure the career of these students does not suffer due to the late announcement of results.
CBSE counsel Roopesh Kumar informed the Court that this year due to COVID protocol, exams were held across 1278 centers, and to collect results from these centers and announce results will take almost a month.
At the outset, senior advocate Vivek Tankha, appearing for one of the petitioners, said that CBSE compartment exams have commenced today and will continue up to September 29 and nearly two lakh students will appear in the compartment exams.
Tankha said that UGC is also here and the CBSE should come out with the results at the earliest.
The UGC has to give us (students appearing in compartment exams) a chance to take admissions in universities, he said.
Tankha argued that CBSE has to declare results early and UGC has to give us a chance of taking admission in colleges otherwise our one year will be lost.
The bench asked Tankha that without CBSE declaring the results how can UGC accommodate the students.
The senior lawyer contended that after the results are declared, UGC can give the students a chance to take admissions in colleges as the students are appearing in the exams during the pandemic times.
The bench asked UGC that because of the particular situation is it possible for the commission to have some route open for accommodating these students who are appearing in compartment exams.
To this, the counsel for UGC said that it can be done, if the seats are vacant but he will have to take instructions.
UGC counsel Apurva Kurup told the bench that admissions usually close by October end and compartment students get to apply for remainder seats that are vacant. The bench told UGC, “This is a peculiar situation we are facing this year. You can make one-week accommodation till the first week of November in the interest of these students.” The matter will be heard next on Thursday, September 24.
