MUHS students oppose offline exam on June 10; govt says 'will go ahead'
Students of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) continue to oppose offline examination scheduled on June 10, citing COVID risks. The demands grew louder even students didn't get any relief from the Bombay High Court.
The Napur bench on Saturday refused to grant interim relief to approximately 44,000 medical students across the country who have to appear physically for the MUHS examination on June 10. The bench was hearing a PIL challenging MUHS decision as well as the direction to sign an undertaking that the state would not be held responsible if students contracted COVID-19 because of appearing in the exam. The plea requested that an online exam be held for 'Winter 2020' wherein graduate and post-graduate students would appear for certificate courses.
The bench said that every examinee should have himself tested for COVID and produce a negative report along with his hall ticket. "As a safety measure, it would be advisable for each examinee to have conducted an RT-PCR test upon himself and only in case, he finds such a test is negative, he may sit for the exams."
As students took to Twitter to protest in large numbers, Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh reiterated that the examinations cannot be conducted in online mode. He made it clear that the students will have to appear physically to take the medical exam.
"Central Council has not given permission for online conduct of examinations for Maharashtra University of Health Science students. Even Bombay High Court has dismissed the ple. Hence, it is important to conduct exams offline," Deshmukh said in a tweet Sunday night.
