The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) informed the Bombay HC on Tuesday that it has asked all its affiliated and deemed universities to conduct final year degree exams as per the guidelines issued by the Universities Grants Commission (UGC).

A PIL was filed by Dhananjay Kulkarni, a retired professor of Maharashtra seeking dismissal of the state government’s decision to cancel final year degree exams of professional and non-professional courses due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. He insisted that the state government had no power to take the decision of cancellation of exams. He challenged the government resolution released on June 19, saying under Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, the chancellor has overall jurisdiction and the state has no power to make a decision about exams.

The AICTE, in response to the plea filed in the Bombay HC , said that the council would be following UGC guidelines while conducting exams as it considers that exams are necessary and also the health and safety of the students. As per the affidavit filed in response to PIL, “In view of this, the AICTE requested all deemed universities, technical institutions and polytechnics affiliated to AICTE to follow the UGC guidelines to conduct examinations in offline (pen and paper) or online or blended (offline plus online) mode.”

Earlier last week, the state government said that it had “decided to cancel exams in view of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra and due to the risk of spread of the virus through the paper.”

There are 7,34,516 final year students in non-professional courses and 2,83,937 final year students in professional courses in Maharashtra.

The matter will be heard in court on July 31.

Source: Times now

Read: Covid-19: Maharashtra govt won’t conduct final year exams