Delhi University Open Book Exams Hearing

A Bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad is hearing the matter now.

Delhi High Court begins hearing petitions concerning online open book examination for final year DU students in PWD category. Court to examine the data on mock tests, status of CSCs, scribes etc.

Matter listed before Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad.

Court asks DU: Why was the affidavit filed at quarter to 10? We didn't get the time to read it. The other side is equally handicapped.

Counsel was constantly following up : Senior Advocate Sachin Dutta

Court notes that the number of students who logged in for the mock was less than 50% of the ones who registered.

In phase I, 74,180 students participated out of approximately 1.82k students : Prof Vinay Gupta

Some students had appeared for the mocks earlier as well : Prof Gupta

What is the sanctity of the test when the remaining have not appeared for the mock? : Court

How many years complained of technical problems? There is no info on this? How many were able to upload the answer? : Court

There were 35 complaints till July 28: Senior Adv Dutta

This test was only to familiarise students with the platform: Senior Adv Dutta as Court observes that the data on students who uploaded the answer sheet was low.

As of today, the student may download and upload, for which mocks are being conducted. If student doesn't not wish to do it, he can download the question paper from email: Senior Adv Dutta

How many email address do you have: Court

We have address of a student: Prof Gupta

How many students have said that they want to opt for email?: Court

They need not opt. Both options are there: Senior Adv Dutta

Court notes that only around 39k attempted the paper, out of which around 22k uploaded.

Because in this phase, we had to only give access to students to familiarise them: Senior Adv Dutta

Out of 647 PWD students, 486 logged in. Out of 182 visually impaired students, only 50% logged in and even lesser uploaded the answer: Court

Court questions DU on the set up for visually impaired students who do not have access to internet and reside in non metro cities.

CSC have been asked to arrange for scribe. Any candidate is free to arrange for a scribe: Senior Adv Dutta

Where has CSC said that they will arrange for a scribe?: Court

CSC doesn't know how many students will avail their facility. DU doesn't know either : Court

They need not inform beforehand: Senior Adv Dutta

It is your responsibility to have the data of how many students would avail CSC : Court

UGC has mandated us to conduct the exam: Dutta

We are not going into UGC Guidelines. We are now seeing that students are not left high and dry: Court

The physical option is there (in second phase). We are hoping that there will be very less students for the second phase: Senior Adv Dutta

You are very hopeful: Court

Mode of examination for the physical exam will also be the same : Senior Adv Dutta

What is the figure on students who wrote the mock exam? : Court

Actual figure on how many students would sit for physical examination would be clear on August 10. : Prof Gupta

Senior Adv Kapil Sibal for the Petitioner: Actual number of students who uploaded the mock answer is 22k. Because one student may be uploading several answer sheets. It is less an 8% of the total.

There is no special arrangement for PWD students at CSC: Senior Adv Sibal

There is no data either : Court

Let the CSC representative clarify, he is here: Senior Adv Dutta

What is left to clarify: Court

They are playing with the lives of the students.. How do they know it (CSC) is working, is there electricity: Senior Adv Sibal

It is true that there are no special arrangement for PWD students, scribes : Dinesh Tyagi from CSC

We have a contract with CSC that they would provide assistance: Senior Adv Dutta

There is some anxiety in our mind: Court

Why does your guideline say that the visually impaired student would have the opportunity to meet the scribes two days before: Court

An overwhelming majority will sit for the OBE, others will sit for physical examination: Senior Adv Dutta

Why force PWD students to come to CSC then? : Court

This is optional. They can sit for physical examination: Senior Adv Dutta

60 visually impaired students asked for a scribe. 58 wanted scribes at home, 2 wanted at CSC. CSC agreed to arrange the scribe: Prof Gupta

We said we will facilitate, not arrange. We are saying we will help: Dinesh Tyagi

You are banking on CSC but see what they are saying : Court

We don't have scribes at the CSC : Tyagi

There is a complete mismatch in statements: Court

Who is arranging scribes at home?: Court

That is not possible. Scribes can be arranged at college or CSC: Senior Adv Dutta

Have you informed the 58 students?: Court

Prof Gupta will answer: Dutta

Prof Aneja, who is the Nodal officer, will answer: Prof Gupta

Please take instructions Mr Gupta, we are not going to ask the whole world: Court

Why are you giving hope to the students at go to CSC, everything is ready : Court

If they take the examination and they are not able to perform, they cannot take the exam later: Court

PWD students can sit for the exams once again in physical mode : Senior Adv Dutta

We are here to take a decision for you. We are only here testing the decision: Court

Your endeavours are not enough to say that the last point as been covered: Court

At the end of the day, there will be physical exam: Senior Adv Dutta

Then scrap this, why are you going the mock way and this and that. Let everyone sit for physical : Court

Issue of scribe is with the Dean (Prof Gupta), I am not part of the process : Prof Anil Aneja

On June 27, before the exams were postponed, nobody asked for the scribes: Aneja

These 58 students have come through some examination: Aneja

Are you discarding them on this ground?: Court

Out of 400, only 58 are in question and this number does not call for change in policy. They are sit for physical examination: Aneja

It was my organization that sent the emails from the email address of VI students. We asked for scribes from home because they live in remote areas. The number is large. They are saying 58 but we sent 107 emails: Senior Adv SK Rungta

We do not know where the CSC is. We said we need scribes where we are, not at home: Rungta

Total students are 189. We needed writers, reading material, assistive device. We gave a list. But we got no response: Rungta

We have dealt with the issue on the previous day: Senior Adv Dutta

These are final year students. They appeared in exams all throughout: Senior Adv Dutta

Students may have left Delhi in the middle of the pandemic and left everything behind: Court

Assistive device are with students themselves. Students were given access to collect everything from hostels. At that time there were no restrictions on travelling to Delhi. Even today there are no restrictions: Senior Adv Dutta

Let these 107 students give their details: Senior Adv Dutta

We are not going to duplicate it. They have already sent it: Court

This word file that he talking about was sent on June 16. It had a Google form containing info of all 189 students: Senior Adv Rungta

Their own July 3 circular talks about reimbursement of costs of procurement of study material etc. The college was supposed to give info. Post this, nothing happened: Rungta

Info sought from students included info on the location of students so that arrangements could be made : Rungta

Let info come from the students themselves: Senior Adv Dutta

Why should be say that? : Court

When you know the location of students, why are you not dealing with issues of scribes: Court

Colleges sent info on 229 students out of 400. For remaining, there was no information from students: Aneja

It will be an achievement if 50% students sit for this exam. Others can always sit for physical: Aneja

If students are filing the Google form, this means they have the devices: Aneja

All those who make a request for scribes, we will do our best to arrange one: Aneja

Once request is received, we will do out best, once they intimate that they have not been able to arrange a scribe, we will take care. I will take instructions: Senior Adv Dutta

We don't know if we should let you go ahead with OBE for visually impaired students: Court

It is going well for a large number of students: Senior Adv Dutta

DU has not acted on its own notifications on visually-impaired students: Prateek Sharma, Petitioner

We are prepared for students who are in Delhi: Senior Adv Dutta

Say that you are not prepared for outside Delhi : Court

No obligation on colleges to arrange so much. We have gone out of our way: Dutta

These students are not even here: Senior Adv Dutta

You want us to harrass them more by asking them to come for the hearing? : Court

How is anybody prejudiced. This exam is in the interest of students: Senior Adv Dutta

75% visually impaired students would still be able to sit for the online exam: Aneja

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Delhi HC hears plea by DU students on open book examinations for final-year students in the PwD category [LIVE UPDATES] - Bar & Bench - Indian...