Final year UG online exams to be held from Aug 10-31, DU tells HC

New Delhi, July 14 (PTI): Delhi University will hold final year undergraduate online Open Book Examinations (OBE) from August 10-31, the Delhi High Court was informed on Tuesday.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad was informed by the varsity that the students left out of online exams will be given an opportunity to appear in physical examinations, to be held sometime in September.

While the university initially informed that it has decided to conduct the exams from August 17 and will conclude on September 8, the court asked it to reconsider the schedule and compress it as the final year students are supposed to pass and join other courses in India or abroad and their career prospects are at involved.

The counsel for DU and Dean of Examinations professor Vinay Gupta agreed to that and after discussions it was decided that the online OBE will commence from August 10 and conclude on August 31.

It was also decided that the first phase of mock tests will start from July 27, instead of July 31 and the second phase of mock tests will commence from August 1 instead of August 4.

While the purpose of the first mock test is only to make students familiarise with the process and the technical aspect, the second mock test will be the real time test, DU said.

On the aspect of schedule of physical examinations and declaration of results, DU’s counsel sought some time.

The court also granted liberty to the varsity to bring out the notification for the revised date sheet of exams on its portal.

The court, which conducted the hearing through video conferencing, directed DU to file an affidavit detailing the timeline of the date sheet for the left-out students who will appear in the physical exams and also the timeline for results of students who will sit for online OBE exams in August and listed the matter for further hearing on August 17.

Senior advocate Sachin Dutta and lawyer Mohinder Rupal, representing DU, informed the court that there are 2.7 lakh final year students and 95 per cent have filed the forms for the online exams.

They also told the court that while the fresh examination plan has been worked out for undergraduate courses, they are yet to finalise the exams’ plan for the post graduate students and it will be decided soon.

During the hearing, the court questioned the varsity for pushing the exams to mid-August and said, why your starting point is the middle of August when you were even ready for holding the exams on July 1?

Dutta said there are three additional measures now — the students have been given the time till July 25 to fill up forms for online OBE exams, details of the students have been put on the portal and colleges can verify it, students can also check their details and inform the concerned college if there is any change.

Earlier, the court had pulled up the university for repeatedly postponing the final year exams and had observed that examinations are nerve- wracking and career of thousands of students was at stake.

The court had questioned the varsity on pushing the exams from July 10 to a date beyond August 15, even when it kept maintaining that it was ready to conduct the online OBE on July 1 as well as on July 10.

It had noted that on June 26, DU informed the court that it will go ahead with conducting exams from July 1 and after less than 24 hours, the university postponed the exams to July 10.

The court had on June 29 issued notice to the varsity asking why contempt proceedings be not initiated against it and its officers for trying to mislead the court by withholding information on deferment of the online OBE from July 1 to July 10. The court was then informed that the university was firm on commencing exams from July 10.

The high court was hearing various petitions by several final year DU students seeking quashing and withdrawal of the notifications of May 14, May 30 and June 27 for online exams for undergraduate and postgraduate students, including of the School of Open Learning and Non-Collegiate Women Education Board. As an alternative prayer, one of the petitions has sought direction to the DU to evaluate the final year students based on the previous years’ or semesters’ results in the same manner as the university has planned to promote the first and second year students.