Confusion strikes as Mumbai University’s Crime Law exam faces mix-up across 53 centres | Representational Image
Mumbai: A massive administrative blunder by the University of Mumbai (MU) disrupted the ‘Law of Crimes’ exam on Wednesday, affecting hundreds of students across all 53 exam centres. The MU later issued a brief statement confirming the error.
The confusion stemmed from a failure to differentiate between students appearing for the Allowed to Keep Terms (ATKT) exam under the old syllabus and regular students under the revised curriculum.
As a result, question papers based on the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, were distributed to all candidates, including those who were to be tested under the old outdated Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The exam was scheduled from 10.30am to 1pm, but the invigilators came rushing in an hour later, saying there had been a mistake, a student from three-year LLB programme said. “They took back the papers and said we would be given a new set. We lost nearly an hour and had to start all over again,” the student said.
Despite the university replacing the question papers mid-exam, reports surfaced that some colleges continued to direct even the regular students, those under the BNS syllabus, to write answers based on the newly arrived IPC paper, citing university instructions.
“In our college, after the replacement papers arrived, the staff told us to write the IPC paper which came just for the ATKT students. They insisted that this was the only version sent by the university, even though we were taught the BNS-based syllabus,” said another student.
Student organisations and senate members slammed the incident, calling it a systemic failure. “The university’s examination department has become synonymous with disorganisation. When a mix-up of this scale happens at all 53 centres, it’s no longer a mistake; it’s negligence,” said Pradeep Sawant, a Yuva Sena senate member.
This chaos unfolded amid already existing confusion over exam schedules. Two separate timetables were released; one for first year LLB (3 years) semester II students and another for BA LLB (5 years) semester VI students.
The revised timetable for the three-year programme was released only on April 28, while the five-year course had its schedule published a month earlier on March 29. Students and colleges received conflicting interpretations, which added to the anxiety.
