"We would like to know how your mock tests went and also about how many students participated in the same. Give us the complete data by the next date of hearing," said a division bench of the high court presided over by Justices Hima Kohli and Subromonium Prasad.

 

The remarks came in while the court was hearing a batch of petitions against the conduct of the examination for the final year students of Delhi University. The batch included petitions filed by the National Federation of Blind, Prateek Sharma and Akshay Lakra.

 

During the course of hearing, senior advocate Sachin Dutta, who was appearing for the varsity, informed the bench that he will keep the entire data relating to the mock tests ready by the next date of hearing as to how many students participated and how many question papers were downloaded and answer sheets uploaded.

 

The court will now hear the matter on July 28. The final year exams in the said varsity are scheduled from August 10 to 31.

 

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 in after the bench asked the varsity to expedite the examination process.

 

The court's request and direction came in after the varsity had submitted that the examinations will be conducted from August 17 to September 8. 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.

 

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the Supreme Court agreed to hear within the next two days a plea challenging a University Grants Commission (UGC) circular and seeking cancellation of final year examinations in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

A bench of Justice Nageswara Rao posted the matter for hearing before a bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that a bench led by Justice Bhushan had already dismissed a similar plea on July 18.