The incessant spat between the Tamil Nadu government and the University Grants Commission (UGC) over the arrear exams has been irking the students in the state as they have been left in deep chaos with the perplexion of what's next and when the Central body and the state government would reach a consensus concerning the arrear exams. 

With the thunderstorms between the state government and the UGC, the students are living under the worst weather amid the COVID-19 outbreak and they are pushed to face uncertainty on getting a degree. In August this year, the Tamil Nadu government had issued the order of canceling the examinations for the college students, except for the students who are in their final semesters, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has announced the cancellation of examinations and the cancellation order had also applied for the students who have arrear exams. The Chief Minister said that by accepting the requests from the students and keeping their welfare in mind, and based on the recommendations from the expert committee, the semester and arrear exams, except the final semester exams, will be canceled as per the guidelines of the UGC.

As all the college exams, except the final semesters, were canceled, the students would be promoted to the next level and while they had welcomed the order, some of the educationalists had voiced against the state government on its order and urged to withdraw it and conduct the arrear exams through online like how the exams for final semesters will be conducted. Following the order, the UGC had also pressed that it won't welcome the decision of the state government, which had stirred a spat between the two bodies. 

Criticizing the government's decision of canceling the arrear exams, many had approached the Madras High Court with petitions to challenge the government's order of canceling the arrear exams. One of the petitioners is former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University Balagurusamy, who condemned the government in canceling the arrear exams. These pleas came to the hearing at the High Court on Thursday during which the UGC had opposed the government's decision. 

The hearing was carried out virtually by the High Court division bench comprised of Justices M Sathyanarayan and R Hemalatha. The hearing had seen the counsel from the UGC and some of the students who joined the proceedings virtually. The UGC had made the submission of reiterating that it opposes the state government's decision of canceling arrear exams for college students. 

During the hearing, the state government's counsel (special government pleader) said that the GO (Government Order) on canceling the exams has been passed by considering the welfare of the students. However, the judges asked the counsel why the government hadn't considered the welfare of the others (final semester students). The judges had questioned the government's counsel on if the government were able to conduct final exams to the college students through online mode, why it can't conduct the arrear exams online too. 

In its counter-argument against the state government, UGC said it won't adhere to the state government's order of canceling the arrear exams and it further submitted its previous order of directing all the universities to complete the final year examinations before September 30. However, the state government had earlier said to the Union Ministry of Education that it was not possible to conduct the final year exams by September 30 owing to the COVID-19 cases. 

As the spat between the Tamil Nadu government and UGC has been getting intensified with more delays in arriving at a final decision, the college students in the state had left with chaos and perplexion on what's next and whether the arrear exams would be conducted in the state.