MU may put off LLB, LLM repeat exams on students’ demand

The University of Mumbai (MU) may postpone first semester repeat examinations for bachelor of law (LLB) and master of law (LLM) courses, after students complained of insufficient time to prepare for the test as the results were declared late.

The first semester law examinations, which are usually held in October, were pushed to January due to delay in law admissions. While the LLM results were out last week, the LLB results were declared on Wednesday. The repeat examination for the two courses are set to begin on April 5 and 10, respectively, leaving students with little time to prepare.

“We are considering postponing the examination. A decision will be taken in the next two or threedays,”saiddeepakwasave, director, board of examinations and evaluation at MU.

Earlier, Student Law Council, a city-based students’ group, had written to the university vicechancellor demanding that the exams be rescheduled to a later date. “The repeat examinations have been scheduled soon after the first semester results. It is impossible that the re-evaluation results will come before repeat exams and this will lead to wastage of the fee paid for re-evaluation,” read the letter.

Other students had also made similar demands. “Since the academic year was delayed and the students have only 15 days to prepare for repeat exams, the least MU can do is postpone at least the repeat examination, if not the second semester tests,” said Ashutosh Paibhale, an LLB student at Government Law College. The second semester tests are to be held in May.

Rashmi Oza, head of law department at MU, said the first semester LLM exams were delayed due to delay in the first semester LLB exam, which was caused by the chaos around the common entrance test (CET) for law. “We need to match the schedule of LLM with LLB. But the examination department decided to schedule it on the usual time, leaving hardly any time between the two examinations,” she said.

Wasave justified the scheduling by saying, “We conduct 400 exams every semester. Changing the dates of one exam affects the schedule of other tests.”

MOST STUDENTS — 85% IN LLM AND 60% IN LLB — WERE UNABLE TO CLEAR THE TESTS AND ARE LIKELY TO APPEAR FOR REPEAT EXAMS