Anupam & Ors. vs University Of Delhi Through Its Registrar & Ors

Prathiba M. Singh, J

This hearing has been held through video-conferencing.

Mr. Apoorv Kurup, ld. counsel appearing for the UGC, at the outset, submits that in view of the order passed yesterday, an emergency meeting of

the UGC was held, wherein the revised guidelines have been published. As per the revised guidelines, the Universities are required to complete the

examination by September, 2020. This guideline has been issued keeping in mind the interests of students including their health, equal opportunity and

also their academic credibility and career opportunities. However, Universities are free to adopt their own schedule for conduct of examinations.

Further to the orders passed in this matter on 6th July 2020, Prof. Vinay Gupta, Dean (Examinations) has joined the hearing. In so far as

preparedness of University of Delhi, to conduct the examinations from 10th July, 2020 is concerned, he has stated as under:-

(i) The total number of students who are studying in the final year of University of Delhi are approximately 2.45 lakhs. Out of the total number,

approximately 1.86 lakh students are from Delhi and approximately 59,000 students are from outside Delhi. Prof. Vinay Gupta submits that in the first

three days of the mock tests, approximately 1.58 lakh students registered for the mock tests and are likely to take the online examination.

(ii) That the date sheets for all the courses have already been released by the University for the examinations to be conducted. The examinations for

various subjects would commence on 10th July, 2020 and the last date for closing of the examinations would be 4th August 2020. Only in respect of

Chemistry and Library Sciences courses, the date sheet is yet to be announced. However, by giving a one week notice period to the students, the date

sheet for these subjects would also be announced and the same would be within the overall deadline of 4th August, 2020.

(iii) In so far as the examination portal is concerned, Prof. Vinay Gupta, under instructions from Dr. Sanjeev Singh, Joint Director, DU Computer

Centre, submits, that the same is quite robust and is capable of catering to 80,000 students at a time. However for each exam, the traffic is not likely

to be more than 20,000 - 22,000 students.

(iv) In case there is any technical glitch, due to which the portal is not accessible to students, the students can obtain the question paper by writing an

e-mail to the email address already provided. The question paper would then be sent by e-mail. For the purposes of uploading answer sheets as well,

an e-mail address has been provided. The email address provided is obescript@exam.du.ac.in. In case the portal is not accessible, the answer sheet

can also be e-mailed to the respective faculty/college, as well as to the centralized server.

(v) In case students have any technical glitch or there is a delay in uploading of the answer sheets due to late receipt of the question paper or due to

technical difficulties, a small time window would be left open for the answer sheet to be sent on e-mail. The said email would be referred to a

Committee, which would look into the matter and upon ensuring that the technical glitch and all the reasons for late submission are genuine, the

Committee would proceed to accept the answer sheet. It is submitted that, if there is a delay of about 30 minutes, the answer scripts would be

accepted.

(vi) In so far as the remaining schedule for the examination is concerned, it is stated that since the situation is extraordinary due to Covid-19, only the

tentative schedule can be given at this stage. Accordingly, he submits that the evaluation of papers is likely to commence form the first week of

August and conclude by mid-September for all the courses. He states that by the first week of October all results would be declared. For the courses

which are manually operating, such as for the law faculty, sociology department and some other post graduate departments, the mark sheets would be

released within 15 days of the declaration of results. For all the other courses, the mark sheets would be available immediately.

To show the preparedness of Delhi University for conducting the online examination, Mr. Sachin Datta, ld. Sr. counsel submits that during the mock

tests, more than 4.85 lakh question papers have been downloaded and attempted, and 4.68 lakh files have been uploaded successfully. This shows that

the students are able to access the mock tests as also upload the documents.

It is also submitted that the 5MB limitation is only on a per page basis and if there is more than one page, the 5MB limitation would be applied for

each page and thus the limit of 5MB ought not to be mistaken by the students. Though one file has to be the size of 5MB, multiple files of under 5MB

can be uploaded and there is no limit which has been fixed, as to the number of files that may be uploaded.

Ms. Sunita Ojha, ld. counsel appearing for the Ministry of HRD, submits that in so far as Union of India is concerned, all the Universities are

autonomous in nature. They are free to follow the schedule for examinations that they wish to, so long as the overall deadline of end of September,

2020 is adhered to by the University.

On behalf of the Petitioner students, Mr. Akash Sinha, ld. counsel, submits that the stand of the UGC, MHRD and Ministry of Home Affairs is

contradictory in nature. Inasmuch as on the one hand UGC and HRD Ministry have stated that the guidelines of UGC are not binding and autonomous

institutions can take their own decisions. However, the MHA has announced yesterday that the holding of exams would be binding. He further

submits that the difficulties which are faced by students from far-off states has not been considered by the Delhi University, as even yesterday as well

as this morning, large number of students have faced several technical difficulties and are unable to upload their answer sheets.

Mr. Shivankar Sharma, ld. counsel appearing for Intervenors submits that various students from SAARC countries including Bangladesh and Nepal

are also facing difficulties of access as well as technical glitches.

It is also submitted on behalf of the Petitioners, that one student can log in from multiple devices using the same user ID and hence, there is a very

big chance of impersonation etc also taking place, and the Dean and Technical staff ought to address these issues.

Ld. counsel for Intervenors also submits that it is not clear as to how the anonymisation of the answer sheets would be done, as every sheet has to

have the name of the candidate and their roll number.

Mr. Sanjeev Singh, submits that in so far as multiple devices is concerned, the said facility has been made available to students who may find that

during the course of the exam, any of their devices were to fail. It is the students’ responsibility to ensure that their login ID and password remain

confidential and the availability of multiple devices has been provided, for the facility of the students.

Prof. Gupta further submits that in so far as the post graduates students are concerned, while effort would be made to declare all the results as

early as possible, if there are any specific post graduate students who have obtained admissions in any foreign universities where the deadline would

be fast approaching, such students can make a representation to the University well in time to declare the results in a sealed cover or on a confidential

basis, for which there is a clear procedure available in Delhi University. Results of such posts graduate students would be declared on a confidential

basis and the same can be used for the purpose of their foreign admissions and for Visa processing etc.

In so far as undergraduate courses are concerned, where students may obtain admission to post graduate courses in foreign universities, students

may write an e-mail to the Dean (Examinations) informing him of the said admissions, in which case, efforts would be made to expedite the results of

such courses. The said e-mails may be sent by the earliest at dean_exam@du.ac.in.

It is again reiterated that the question papers would be automatically e-mailed by the portal, to all the students, who have registered, once the

examination begins. In so far as uploading the answer sheet is concerned, if the same is not possible on the portal, the answer sheets can be e-mailed

to obescript@exam.du.ac.in.

List on 8th July, 2020 at 4.00 pm in order for Prof. Gupta to confirm that the examination schedule and date sheet which has now been released

shall be adhered to. Secondly, issue notice to MEITY, UOI. Ms. Ojha, appearing for the Union of India, shall seek instructions from MEITY in order

to ensure the availability of Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the country, for students to be able to take exams in all the shifts i.e., 7.30am,

11.30 am and 3.30 pm. A responsible official from the MEITY shall also join the hearing through video conferencing tomorrow at 4:00pm. Prof. Gupta

and Mr. Sanjeev Singh shall also appear tomorrow, along with the representative of MEITY.