Aditya Thackeray moves SC challenging UGC decision of holding exams

President Yuva Sena and Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Aditya Thackery moved Supreme Court and filed a writ petition challenging the University Grants Commission.decision to hold final year exams for colleges and universities in September. The exams were postponed earlier due to COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown.

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Maharashtra cabinet minister and Yuva Sena president Aaditya Thackeray moved Supreme Court on Saturday and filed a writ petition challenging the University Grants Commission (UGC) decision to hold final year exams for colleges and universities in September after they were postponed from earlier this year due to COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown. Yuva Sena is the youth wing of the ruling Shiv Sena and is led by Mr Thackeray.

Thackrey has already written letters to the UGC and the MHRD requesting cancellation of exams and promoting students on the basis of average marks.

The student wing of Shiv Sena contends that "exams conducted in the month of September 2020 will pose further challenges including but not limited to paper checking when to declare examination results and admissions to post-graduate courses and delays therein, network connectivity issues in rural areas in case examinations are conducted online which is unfavourable to students in rural areas versus those in urban areas, risk of increased transmission of COVID 19 among students if examinations are conducted by Universities, colleges offline i.e involving the physical presence of a large number of students in enclosed spaces".

Mr Thackeray also took to Twitter, asking if the UGC would "take responsibility for the health of each student" and warned that the lives of lakhs of students and teaching staff were at stake.

• The decision of the HRD Ministry of Union Govt, and the UGC is absolutely absurd and probably from an alternate universe. I urge UGC to not make this a silly issue of egos and realise that lakhs of lives of students, teachers, non teaching staff are at stake. (1/n)

  — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  The decision of the HRD Ministry of Union Govt, and the UGC is absolutely absurd and probably from an alternate universe. I urge UGC to not make this a silly issue of egos and realise that lakhs of lives of students, teachers, non teaching staff are at stake. (1/n)

  — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2020

  ">

  The decision of the HRD Ministry of Union Govt, and the UGC is absolutely absurd and probably from an alternate universe. I urge UGC to not make this a silly issue of egos and realise that lakhs of lives of students, teachers, non teaching staff are at stake. (1/n)

  — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2020

The petition seeks directions to each university to chart out its own plan with respect to exams depending upon the local conditions.

"The Yuva Sena will firmly support the justice and rights of the students of India," said the Yuva Sena.

• Unless, the HRD Ministry and UGC take responsibility for the health of each student appearing for exams, one wonders what is the guarantee apart from just that the ministry and UGC don’t realise the growing number of cases in India.
  (2/n)

  — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  Unless, the HRD Ministry and UGC take responsibility for the health of each student appearing for exams, one wonders what is the guarantee apart from just that the ministry and UGC don’t realise the growing number of cases in India.
  (2/n)

  — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2020

  ">

  Unless, the HRD Ministry and UGC take responsibility for the health of each student appearing for exams, one wonders what is the guarantee apart from just that the ministry and UGC don’t realise the growing number of cases in India.
  (2/n)

  — Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) July 10, 2020

COVID-19 cases in India have been rising over the past weeks, with over 25,000 new cases reported every day since July 10, the last three days have seen over 30,000 each.

Meanwhile, 26,273 deaths have been recorded.

Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country, with nearly three lakh total cases. Of this more than 1.2 lakh are active and 11,452 are deaths linked to the virus.