MPhil entrance row: Records of Guru Nanak Dev varsity seized
IN A CIVIL WRIT PETITION, ASPIRANT AVNEET KAUR HAD ALLEGED THAT FEW STUDENTS WERE GIVEN EXTRA TIME WHILE ATTEMPTING THE PAPER
AMRITSAR: Raising doubts on the MPhil entrance examination conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University being fair, the Punjab and Haryana high court has seized the entire record.
The MPhil (religious studies) exam was conducted by department of Guru Nanak Studies, Guru Nanak Dev University, in August.
In a civil writ petition(CWP), aspirant Avneet Kaur had alleged that few students were given extra time while attempting the paper.
Kaur had also alleged that the question papers were not uniform and few set of papers were different. She sought cancellation of the test citing “irregularities in the entrance test to give seats to favourite students.”
Notably, the university’s counsel conceded before the court that “there was an error in the question paper regarding the allocation of time.The time required was one-and-a-half hour, where the question paper indicated one hour.”
The petitioner’s grievance stems from the fact that few candidates were provided 90 minutes while she was not.
The counsel for the university contends that the mistake was rectified by making an announcement. However, the argument failed to convince the court.
The court is of the opinion that this assertion is difficult to test. But before we proceed further, we have a reason to doubt the fairness of the examination itself, which finds support from the assertion of the respondent university that different sets of question papers were prepared, read the order issued on Monday.The order states, if the examination is common to all, the university cannot prescribe different sets of question papers.The chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Amritsar, will seize the records and transmit the same to the court.
Following the court order, the CJM seized the records from the department. The development has been confirmed by Amarjit Singh, officiating head of the department.
The court also issued a warning that any attempt to cover up the tracks would be viewed with extreme seriousness and construed to be an attempt to hoodwink the court for which appropriate directions would be issued.