Telangana High Court on Thursday declined to pass an order to the State government to promote students of all degree and post-graduate courses to final year based on their marks in internal assessment exams.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy, hearing two PIL pleas over conducting annual exams of UG and PG courses, directed the State government to file a detailed counter affidavit in three weeks. During the previous hearing on June 30, the government through Advocate General B.S. Prasad informed the HC that all Common Entrance Tests were postponed. The bench, however, did not pass any specific direction on conducting exams of the UG and PG courses on that day. The petitioner’s counsel C. Damoder Reddy, presenting his arguments, appealed to the bench to promote all students of these courses to final year based on their internal assessment marks. He told the court that the governments of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Pondicherry have taken such decisions.
The AG told the court that Telangana government had decided to hold the examinations of these courses as per the norms of University Grants Commission. Standard Operating Procedures were issued in this regard by the UGC on Wednesday.
The dates of these examinations would be fixed in the future as per the SOP. Till such time, the examinations stand postponed, the AG said. Differing with the petitioner’s counsel contentions, the bench observed that the courts cannot compel the State government to take a policy decision on examinations. The UGC through its SOP suggested to postpone the exams. If the COVID-19 pandemic situation further aggravates, the State government would probably come up with a decision not to hold the exams in the coming days. “We don’t know whether the conditions would improve or deteriorate. Let us see,” the bench said. As the coronavirus spread its tentacles fast in the State, even the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) was unable to hold the exams, the bench said.
