Justice Rajiv Shakdher, while seeking JNU’s response, said that for the moment, exams would be conducted on individual recommendations of different Board of Studies and special centres on the issue of online exams.
The court said the focus should on closing the monsoon semester at the earliest, while stating that it needed to examine if exams can be conducted through any alternative route.
The order came on a plea filed through advocates Samiksha Godiyal and Abhik Chimni, who contended that the vice-chancellor of JNU did not have the power to allow such form of examinations when the entire curriculum had not been covered in the university’s schools and special centres.
Appearing for the varsity, the Centre’s standing counsel, Monika Arora, told the court that in some schools, exams had already been conducted via regular mode and some had done it through the alternative means.
Appearing for the petitioner teachers and students, the counsels said they were willing to accept it in this semester due to the time constraints.
The university placed before the court recommendations and minutes of meetings of the Board of Studies of the schools and special centres, detailing the manner in which each of them wished to have examinations conducted.
The matter has been posted for August 6.
Prasanta Patnaik