Aaditya Thackeray Files Petition In Supreme Court Against Holding Final Year Exams In September

Mumbai: Maharashtra Cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday led a petition filed by Yuva Sena (the youth wing of Shiv Sena) moving the Supreme Court Saturday against the Centre’s decision to hold final year exams for colleges and universities in September.

In its statement, the Yuva Sena said the Central government was “ignoring physical and mental health, anxiety and safety of students across the country” in allowing examinations to be held, reported NDTV.

“COVID-19 is a national disaster, in view of which the UGC should have cancelled final year exams… however, it seems the UGC has not understood the full extent of dilemma the country is facing,” reported NDTV quoting the Yuva Sena statement.

The Yuva Sena further said that the IITs had already cancelled final year exams. It said that the challenges of holding exams, included the risk of COVID-19 transmission as students and exam invigilators travel to and from exam centres, the report added.

The organisation said students should be promoted on the aggregate of marks scored so far in their academic year. Slamming the Human Resources Ministry earlier on Friday, Aaditya Thackeray called the decision to hold exams “absolutely absurd and probably from an alternate universe”.

In his tweet, he asked 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, NDTV reported.

It may be recalled, that on Monday, the UGC had announced that final year/semester exams would be held by the end of September