Bombay HC refuses to stay MUHS offline MBBS Exams

Nagpur: The Bombay High Court on Saturday refused to grant a stay to offline examinations of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) which are to start from June 10.

Justice Avinash Gharote was hearing a petition filed by Amol Deshmukh and Nitesh Tantarpale, seeking postponement of the exams for undergraduate as well as post graduate courses of MUHS, including MBBS, MD and BHMS.

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The exams should be further put off till all students are vaccinated or should be held online, petitioners' lawyer advocate Rahul Bhangde had submitted.

Students, as well as examination staff, would be otherwise at risk of catching coronavirus infection, he argued.

MUHS lawyer Abhijit Deshpande said the petition had been filed very late and the entire preparation for the examinations has already been completed.

Students have a choice to sit for the examination later, he pointed out.

All necessary safety measures including social distancing will be taken during the examinations, he added.

Justice Gharote noted in the order that there are 40,661 candidates slated to take the examinations at 173 centres, and except for petitioner Tantarpale, nobody has opposed the exams.

Those who are unable to appear for whatever reasons may take the examinations later which will not be counted as an additional attempt, the court noted.

"All the preparations for conducting the examinations from June 10 are in place, which is a date five days hence.

The examinations in the earlier two phases were conducted offline, in January-February 2021 and March-April 2021... it would not now be justifiable to stay the conduct of the examinations," the court said.

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