PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa pulled up the Goa University over its plans to hold physical exams which prompted the Goa University to re-examine its proposal to hold physical exams for final year students.
Hearing a petition filed by a group of students, the High Court bench of Sadhana Jadhav and Manish Pitale questioned the Goa University authorities for its insistence on holding offline exams.
When questioned, the counsel appearing for the University submited that the online examinations are being conducted “only to maintain the standards of education/ assessment of the students.”
“In fact, the safety of the students is of paramount importance and the general health of all members of the society at all levels cannot be compromised at any cost. The safety of invigilators, staff of the University and others, besides students also needs to be taken into consideration,” he told the court.
However, the Court while maintaining that they do not agree with the contention, also pointed out that the University’s stance was contrary to its own affidavit submitted before the Court back in 2020.
“The stand of the University was clear that they would abide by the decision of the BCI which had specifically stated that the safety of the students cannot be compromised at any cost and therefore the final year students could also appear for the online examination. The Counsel appearing for the University at that point of time had made a statement that the examination would be conducted within one month of the physical reopening of the Colleges and University when normalcy resumes and when the pandemic situation no longer exists, as directed by the BCI,” the High Court observed.
“In fact this proposition should apply to all streams. It would be necessary for the University to take a holistic approach to the pandemic situation and the safety of the students and all others involved in the process of conducting examination,” the High Court said.
The University conceded before the court that they would reconsider their decision.
“The Counsel appearing for the University submitted that today (Thursday) the University would hold a meeting to deliberate upon the issue of holding of online examination of all streams and revert back to this Court by tomorrow (Friday). We hope that the University would consider the safety of the students and other members of the society before taking the decision,” the HC said.
