Mumbai: Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's announcement of cancellation of final-year exams has taken another political turn. A letter written by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to the CM on Tuesday describes the latter's announcement as ‘unprecedented’ and made ‘without any profound thinking on the legal repercussions’. Koshyari followed that with a tweet: "Cancellation of exams would jeopardise the future of students."
Koshyari asserted that the Chancellor of Universities has the final authority over all university matters as per the provisions of Maharashtra Public Universities Act.
The Governor wrote that even though the Committee of Vice Chancellors constituted by the Minister for Higher and Technical Education to analyse the situation and to explore various options available to conduct the examinations had given its report to the Secretary, Higher and Technical Education Department on 6th May 2020, the same had not been presented to him till date.
The Governor pointed out that during his video conference with Vice Chancellors, all the vice chancellors of state universities had communicated their preparedness for conducting their respective examinations.
The governor said he had earlier mentioned that the chancelllor’s office would give further directions after accepting the recommendations of the committee partially or fully, once he had received the report.
Now, the governor has written in his letter, “The arbitrary decision has violated the basic principle that to obtain an identical degree, there cannot be two sets of criteria, one who has given examination and for the other who has obtained marks on average. The examinations cannot be made optional.”
Pointing out that the students of medicine, architecture, law and other programmes need to register themselves with their respective professional bodies or councils after completion of a professional course in order to get their licence to practise, the governor said these bodies may not be able to register students without them being evaluated on established parameters.
Earlier, on May 22, the Governor had written a letter to CM stating, "It would not be ethical or appropriate to award degrees to final year students without conducting their examinations." Following several discussions, on May 30, CM announced, "Final year exams will not be conducted due to the coronavirus situation and students will be given average marks of the aggregate scores of previous semesters. Students who are not satisfied with their marks will be given an option of appearing for exams later whenever possible depending on the situation."
In addition, the governor noted, the Ministry of Home Affairs had given its approval and issued guidelines to conduct examinations to various state boards and that CBSE and ICSE boards were in the process of conducting exams in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic situation.
In his letter, the Governor has mentioned that the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other central authorities are of the view that the final year examination may not be dispensed with and the state government should abide by UGC guidelines alongwith the provisions of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 2016.
