HC clears the way for open book exam at Delhi University

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court on Friday streamlined the process of online Open Book Examinations (OBE) for final-year undergraduates to be conducted by Delhi University from August 10 and also noted that the students were taking the exam in “extreme and extraordinary circumstances.”
It issued a slew of directions to safeguard the interests of students and ensure a smooth conduct of the exam.
“This court is mindful of the fact that enormous preparations have been undertaken by the students for giving the online OBE. Under such circumstances, the court is concerned about the manner in which the processes can be further streamlined in the larger interest of the students, including the petitioners,” observed Justice Pratibha M Singh. She then directed the authorities to ensure fair opportunity were provided to the students keeping in view the technical problems, including slow or no internet connectivity in various parts of the country.
The court clarified that it had not gone into the legal validity of the exam owing to the directions passed by a division bench earlier, and permitted DU to proceed with the online OBE.
Noting that there were various technological challenges, and the evaluation was of 70-100 marks for each paper, the court directed the question papers should be made accessible to the students on the university website, and also sent on their email IDs.
While regular students would be given three hours, the court said persons with disabilities be given five hours to answer the questions. Everyone would get an additional hour to scan the answersheets and upload or email them.
The university was directed to send an auto-generated email informing the students that their answersheets were received. The court also specified that the central email-id for uploading of answersheets was obescript@exam.du.ac.in.
Common Service Centres Academy, which runs the centres set up to provide services to the students who do not have infrastructure, was ordered to notify the exam schedule to all its centres by the end of the day.
The court also reconstituted the five-member grievance redressal committee that would now be under the aegis of retired high court judge, Justice Prathiba Rani. It will work till the conclusion of the exams. Students can send their grievances at grievanceexam2020@gmail.com and grievance@exam.du.ac.in.
Once the OBE process concludes, DU will file a comprehensive report on the conduct of examinations within four weeks, the court said.