Delhi High Court tries to pep up visually impaired students for online test in Delhi University

While listing the matter for further hearing on July 13, the bench in its order of June 17 directed the DU, UGC and Centre to file their replies to the petition before the next date.
Delhi University (File Photo)
Delhi University (File Photo)

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has asked final year undergraduate and postgraduate visually impaired students of Delhi University (DU) to endeavour to sit for the open book online exam and said the cost of any book or assistive device they buy for the examination shall be reimbursed up to Rs 2 lakh.

A bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon further directed that as and when a second round of open book exam is held, which as per DU would be in September, the visually impaired students would be entitled to appear in them to improve their score even if they have taken the first round of exams which will start from July 2.

The directions, among several, were issued by the high court while hearing a plea by the National Federation of the Blind challenging the DU’s decision to hold open book examinations on the ground that it violated rights of students with visual impairments and other disabilities.

The Federation wanted DU to assess performance of the disabled students of final year on the basis of their performance in previous semester and internal assessment. In the alternative, it suggested holding offline exams for such students after colleges reopen.

While listing the matter for further hearing on July 13, the bench in its order of June 17 directed the DU, UGC and Centre to file their replies to the petition before the next date. It further directed that “the visually impaired students may approach their respective institutes/colleges for any assistance required, including provision of reading material/text books in accessible form and assistive devices. It also made it clear that the visually impaired students would not disentitle them to the relief.

(With PTI inputs)

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com