HC finds Mphil entrance exam unfair, orders retest

Petitioner had alleged some students were given extra time for the exam, university authorities admit to their lapse before the high court bench

AMRITSAR: Terming the Mphil (religious studies) entrance test conducted by the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) for the academic session 2018-19 unfair and flawed, Punjab and Haryana high court has cancelled the test and ordered to conduct the test again.

In August last year, the exam was conducted by the department of Guru Nanak Studies, GNDU. In a civil writ petition (CWP) lodged to the court, aspirant for the Mphil (religious studies) 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”.

Gurpuneet Singh Randhawa and Suneetpal Singh Aulakh, legal counsel for the petitioners, said that a bench of justice Mahesh Grover and justice Lalit Batra has ordered the examination process be initiated again.

As per the court order dated January 9, the university authorities have admitted that there was an error in the question paper regarding the allocation of time. “After hearing learned counsel for the parties, we are of the opinion that there are indeed grave flaws in the examination process. Every examination process to our minds should be fair to the participants and if glaring mistakes as pointed out by the petitioner and accepted by the respondents to be correct are permitted to stand, it gives rise to a perception of the examination being unfair, even if no malice is attributed,” reads the order.

Notably, the court order also makes it clear that Amarjit Singh, paper setter and officiating head of the department will not associate himself with the examination process. While re-conducting of the examination, the university has also been asked to send examination notices individually to all the examinees, besides displaying the notice on website.

“The university should keep away the faculty members who were involved in previous ‘unfair’ exam,” said the petitioner. “We would also like to request the vice-chancellor to ensure our honour and academic engagements at the university are protected from any personal vendetta against us by the faculty members who were involved in this conspiracy against us,” she added.

We are of the opinion that there are indeed grave flaws in the examination process. Every exam to our minds should be fair to the participants.

HC bench