The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, 5 August, asked the University of Delhi to grant provisional admission in postgraduate courses within the university for final-year students who may write the controversial Online Book Examinations (OBEs) on 10 August 2020.
“If the students sit in OBE and wish to take admission to PG courses at DU, they shall be granted provisional admission.”Justice Hima Kohli, J
Hearing a plea challenging the conduct of OBEs, a single bench of Justice Hima Kohli also asked the university to ensure that if a student is unable to submit any or even one of their answer sheets, she will be allowed to appear for physical examination for those papers only.
The order, however, clarified that in case a student has successfully submitted a paper, she will not be eligible for physical examination in that paper and will have to appear for supplementary exams at a later date.
The court also asked DU to inform all students regarding the two options for submission of answer sheets, by the evening of Thursday, 6 July.
What is the Point of Mock Tests? Asks HC
At the beginning of the hearing, the court had remarked that figures disclosed after the second mock test are rather more abysmal than the first one.
Responding to this, Advocate Sachin Datta, appearing for DU, said that students will be permitted to download the question paper and upload their answer sheets as attachment to an email and submit it.
When the court probed if the same option was given for mock tests, DU replied saying that mock tests didn’t include a provision for download and upload of documents through e-mail.
“What is the point of giving a mock test if the students are not given the opportunity to practice the actual examination facility?”Delhi HC
At some point during the hearing, Advocate Sachin Datta had mentioned that all PwD students have been informed personally, via email, about the fresh arrangement of submitting the answer sheets.
This was challenged by Senior Advocate Sibal, who pointed out that Petitioner Prateek Sharma, a PwD student, has not received any e-mail, as claimed by DU.
To this, Datta said that the e-mail was sent only to visually impaired students, earning the wrath of court which then remarked that “PwD doesn't mean visually impaired alone”.
Court Lashes out at DU
When SK Rungta said that PwD students should be provided with assistive and study material, Datta responded saying that the “university never supplies assistive devices to students”.
Referring to a previous order, the court pointed out that DU had submitted that students may approach their respective colleges for assistive devices. To this, Datta submitted that DU never provides assistive devices.
Justice Kohli then came down on Datta for making a submission contrary to what has already been recorded in a judicial order.
Justice Kohli said that “that in cases where a student seeks assistive devices and University feels that a device has already been provided to him/ her, the device or its value shall be reimbursed to the University after the examination.”
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