DU EXAMS 2020: Delhi High Court began hearing petitions with respect to the online Open Book Examinations (OBE) for the Final Year students under the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) category on July 28. The bench comprising Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad, however, was dismayed at the varsity for not having submitted an affidavit on the data relating to Mock tests, functional Common Service Centres (CSC’s) and regarding the plight of the differently-abled students among other required information.
The Court sought to know the status of Mock tests and the number of functional CSC’s which have been set up to provide services to students who do not have the infrastructure to appear for the OBE but the University, being unable to respond to the queries asked for a day to gather the required data. “I am sure DU is cognisant of the fact that the career of students is at stake, how can you be so slow?” Justice Kohli said.
It further raised questions about the availability of the study material and the arrangement of scribes but the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Electronics and Technology which were earlier directed to file affidavits about the CSC centers and their preparedness including the arrangement of scribes were silent. DU’s Dean of Examinations Professor Vinay Gupta informed the court that 58 students had asked for scribes at home but it is difficult for them to accept the request. He said scribes can be provided at colleges or CSE Centers but not at the student’s home.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal informed the court that no CSC was available for students who reside in remote areas and there are many gram panchayats that do not even have the CSC’s. Hence, he emphasized the presence of CSE Academy before the court to know about the availability and logistics of these centers. The Court, therefore, went on to ask the representative of CSE Academy, which has an agreement with DU to help the varsity in conducting the OBE, to be present before it on July 30 in order to ascertain how many CSE centers across the country are situated in metropolitan and rural areas. The Bench said it would also like to be informed that out of 2,75,000 students, who have submitted applications to participate in the online OBE, how many have opted for a CSE centre for downloading the question paper and uploading the answer sheets. “It is also imperative for this court to know as to whether visually impaired students, who have asked for scribes, will get an opportunity to interact with the scribes assigned to them at least two days before the examinations in terms of the guidelines issued by the University,” the court added. The next hearing concerning the petition is to take place on July 30.
Image Source – The Hindu
