The Supreme Court on Monday is set to hear petitions challenging the UGC guidelines, which made it mandatory for universities to conduct their final year exams by September 30. The petitions would be heard by a three-judge bench of the top court, comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah. The plea was filed by 31 students across several universities in India. The students, in their petition, had challenged the UGC guidelines for being arbitrary as it would compel students to appear for exams amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier on July 7, the UGC had said the end-term examination for all final-year students would have to be mandatorily held by the end of September 2020, in offline or online mode.

Under a new UGC directive, in case a student is not able to appear for examinations, he/she would be given an opportunity to appear for a special examination by the institution at a later date.

The UGC had also warned against violating the orders and had stated that not accepting the decision would risk the future of students.

Now, petitioners like Yuva Sena have demanded the UGC to allow individual state governments to pass the final year students based on the candidate�s past performance.

The UGC should not mandate conducting the exams amid the COVID-19 health crisis, the petitioners have demanded.

UGC�s decision to hold examinations has been taken after consultation with the Ministry of Human Resource Development.