Chandigarh, January 22
Taking up a petition filed by 159 undergraduate BTech students of the Thapar Institute of Engineering amp; Technology, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today asserted that Covid-19 situation had clearly eased to a certain extent. Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa also disposed of the petition after recording statement of the institute counsel that student-petitioners not appearing for the end semester terminal (EST) examination would be awarded “un-attempt” grade.
The students had challenged a notice issued on December 25, 2020, whereby the institute decided to call the students to attempt EST examination through an offline mode commencing from January 25. Referring to the impugned notice, Justice Dhindsa observed ‘U’ or “un-attempt” grade would not be considered as a backlog. It will not be reflected in the grade card due to the pandemic.
Justice Dhindsa added universities/colleges had taken decisions towards partial opening and conduct of examinations through the offline medium. Due the Covid-19 guidelines issued by the Government of India/state government and local administrative authorities, of course, had to be observed. Justice Dhindsa said the court had further been informed that petitioners belonging to states without a dedicated examination centre would be accommodated and afforded hostel facility for their participation in the examination, if they were to travel to Patiala with a recent Covid-negative report. As for the petitioners’ submission to advance ‘U’ grade examination from June/July to March/April, Justice Dhindsa said the students would be at liberty to approach the respondent-institute by submitting a representation in two weeks. “In the eventuality of any such representation being preferred, the competent authority under the respondent-institute will be obligated to consider it, to take a decision in such regard and convey it to the petitioners in two weeks from submission of the representation,” he said. — TNS
‘Won’t be considered backlog’
Referring to the impugned notice, Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa observed that ‘U’ or “un-attempt” grade would not be considered as a backlog. It would not even be reflected in the grade card due to the pandemic.
Source: Punjab News Today
