DU online OBE: HC seeks details of Common Service centres

New Delhi, July 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the owner of CSC Academy to appear before it to inform about the preparedness of the Common Service (CSE) centres which have been set up to provide services to students who lack the infrastructure to give Open Book Examinations (OBE) conducted by Delhi University for its students in the final year.

A single judge bench of the high court presided by Justice Prathiba M Singh while hearing the matter via video conferencing issued notice to the CSC Academy directing its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to appear before it on July 27 and inform about the preparedness of the centres for both mock tests and main exams.

The academy has been engaged by the Ministry of Electronics and Technology and has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Delhi University. The owner has also been asked to give a list of centres which have been taken on board by Delhi University for the final exams.

During the course of the hearing, while responding to the contention of the petitioner that the students be given at least 24 hours to submit their answer sheets alleging technical glitches, Apurv Kurup, the counsel for the UGC, told the court that the same would raise questions about the "sanctity" of the examinations.

"Sanctity has to be balanced with the kind of facilities which are available with us," the court remarked.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of the UGC sought adjournment of the said batch of petitions saying that various petitions challenging the UGC guidelines relating to the conduct of the final year exams by central universities were listed before the Supreme Court on Thursday and are likely to be listed again on July 27.

Following which, the court has now posted the matter for detailed hearing on July 30. However, the matter will also be heard on July 27 in order to address the aspect of preparedness of the CSCs.

On Wednesday, the high court had asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to clarify whether the examinations for the final year students will be Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), presentation or assignment based instead of typical long form papers.

The bench asked the UGC to consider and state whether the options of MCQ, assignments, presentation etc are available to final year students. It also observed that unlike other universities across the globe, Delhi University has not been helping its students.

The court was hearing petitions challenging Delhi University's decision to hold Open Book Examination (OBE) for final year undergraduate courses which will be in long form exams.

On July 14, the varsity agreed before the High Court to conduct the final year examinations through the Online Open Book Examination (OBE) mode from August 10. The advancement of dates came after the bench asked the varsity to expedite the examination process.

"Wrap it up fast, the more you delay the exams, the lesser career options would be there with the students," the bench said while asking the varsity to file an affidavit mentioning the detailed timeline for the declaration of results and conducting physical examination for those students who could not appear in open book examination.

The court's request and direction came after the varsity had submitted that the examinations will be conducted from August 17 to September 8. Though, after agreeing to the request and directions of the court, the DU submitted that while the mock tests would begin from July 27 (first phase) and August 1 (second phase), the final exams would be held from August 10 and would conclude by August 30.

Initially, the varsity had announced that the online Open Book Examination would commence from July 1, which was later postponed by the varsity to July 10 and the institution has now postponed the same till August 15 without giving a specific date as to when the same would take place.

Source: IANS