Opposing the decision of the Tamil Nadu government to cancel the arrear exams of all Engineering students in the state who paid their exam fees, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has claimed that the state government's decision is against the guidelines laid by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and that the students will have to pass all their exams in order to get a degree.

Students of Engineering and Arts & Science colleges in Tamil Nadu with backlogs have been anticipating a final decision on the matter of the conduction of arrear exams in the state for over a month. The state government released a statement on August 26 declaring that every student who had paid their fees to appear for the arrear examinations in April - May 2020 will be passed on the basis of the guidelines provided by the UGC and AICTE. The statement released by CM Edappadi Palaniswami read, "Based on demand from students and recommendation by the expert panel, all students except final year students who paid fees for writing arrears are exempted from writing the exams. The marks for these exams will be awarded based on the guidelines given by University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)." A case was later registered against the GO in the Madras High Court by an advocate as well as Anna University's former Vice Chancellor E. Balagurusamy. The court directed notices to the state government, the UGC, and the AICTE to respond to the petition by September 30.

The TN government had already promoted all students studying BA, BSc, MA, MSc, BE/B Tech/B Arch, ME/M Tech, MCA and diploma courses to the next academic year after cancelling the current year's semester exams, except for those appearing for their final semester examination.