In a first, law student has filed a complaint against varsity for allegedly losing his main answer sheet
In the first such case, a law student has approached the BKC police, demanding action against Mumbai University for cheating. Mandar Pande, who is studying law at Rizvi college, is among the thousands aggrieved with suspicious results, declared after evaluation through the On-Screen Marking process.
Mandar Pande
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Re-evaluation and a photocopy of the answer sheet showed he'd scored two marks in the 'Family Law' paper — these are the marks given for the one answer he wrote on a supplement, with no sign of the main answer sheet.The university's OSM system is continuing to mount issues for its examination section, and yet, the varsity stubbornly continues to hold onto it. In the recent past, several cases of students' grievances have come to light, following record-breaking delay in the declaration of results, and several other glitches. Pande's case, however, stands out in many ways - not just because he has approached the police, but also because even as the university appears to have lost his answer sheet, he has been made to appear for a re-exam instead of being given a result based on average marking, which was done for some students whose answer sheets had been lost. It's been three months since his application for re-evaluation and photocopy, he's still waiting for a word on where the rest of his answer sheet is.
End of his tether
Pande appeared for the Family Law paper in May, and the result was declared in the second-half of August. He applied for re-evaluation and a photocopy in September. "When I finally received the photocopy, I was shocked to see that they had evaluated only the supplement. I found this out on November 20 and, four days later, had to appear for the re-exam of a paper that hadn't even been assessed properly in the first place. Not to mention, I still haven't received my re-evaluation results. It's all so bizarre," said a frustrated Pande.
His complaint letter submitted to the police reads: "This is a case of cheating. It's utter callousness by the varsity administration... There needs to be a detailed inquiry into this. I have suffered tremendous mental harassment... Mumbai University, ex-vice chancellor Dr Sanjay Deshmukh and the company doing the OSM work are all equally responsible for this." "I have been continuously asking the varsity for an explanation, to know what happened to my answer sheet. If they have lost it, why was I not considered for the average marking process? Every time, I was just given another date. There is no Students' Grievance Committee in MU, making it more difficult for me, as I had to depend solely on the examination section, which kept postponing the matter," he added.
Officialspeak
MU Registrar Dinesh Kamble said, "This particular case needs to be looked into for a clearer picture. The Students' Grievance Committee will be appointed soon. After the implementation of the new Act, work has begun on formation of different varsity bodies." When contacted, senior inspector, BKC police, Kalpana Gadekar said, "We have accepted his complaint. But we still need to figure out what section can be put here. It's a very unusual case. We are taking legal opinion on it. We will be taking down statements of people involved to make an informed decision."
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