Delhi HC Asks MHA to Consider Plea for College Students to Stay in Hostels During Exams

The Delhi High Court has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to consider the plea of a parent’s body seeking directions to allow final year students studying in the Universities/ Colleges across India to stay in PG and Hostels which are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during their exams. 

Justice Jayant Nath has asked the concerned authorities to treat the writ petition as a representation and deal with the same in accordance with the law. 

The High Court has ordered that appropriate orders may be passed and communicated to the parent’s body. The court has passed this order while giving judgement on a petition filed by Juvvadi Sagar Rao, founder of Telangana Parent’s Foundation seeking direction from the authorities to give judgement on his representation. 

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Furthermore, the plea of the parents body also sought directions to the MHA, Dept. of Higher Education and Dept. of Health and Family Welfare to take appropriate measures to conduct final year and entrance tests for admission to higher studies without compromising with the health of students.

The petition that was filed through advocates Sravan Kumar and R Balaji has said that because of the restrictions imposed by the COVID - 19 pandemic, government, private hostels and Paying Guest Accommodations are closed except a few govt. University run hostels.

The petition has also mentioned that the closure of hostels is creating difficulty for the final year students of various universities who belong to rural areas and staying in the private hostels or PG accommodations. 

It also highlights that Rao has made a representation to the UoI seeking relaxation of lockdown restrictions and allowing the final year students to stay in college hostels and PG accommodations during their final year exams and the same has been transferred to the Dept. of Higher Education for appropriate action.

It also said that as per the guidelines of the Department of Higher Education or UGC, the exams are scheduled to be held in the months of September and October, the representation may be considered and suitable guidelines may be issued by the authorities in the interest of lakhs of final year students across the country. 

As the exam schedule of various universities has been issued, it has become immensely difficult for the final year students to get an accommodation during the current situation, the plea said. 

It suggested that in these circumstances, the government and private hostels and PG accommodations may be allowed to accommodate the final year students, so that they will be able to appear for the exams by taking all the necessary COVID-19 precautions. 

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