Relief for GLC students? MU says re-exam not against rule

At a special meeting held on Friday, the board members discussed the issue of mass failure among approximately 270 students pursuing three- and five-year LLB courses at GLC.

Providing relief to students of Government Law College (GLC) who failed their practical tests last week, the University of Mumbai’s (MU) board of studies (BoS) for law has opined that varsity rules don’t prohibit the college from conducting re-examination for these students. GLC had previously refused to let students re-take the exam. A university official said, “We have received a report from BoS. The university will now act accordingly.”

Providing relief to students of Government Law College (GLC) who failed their practical tests last week, the University of Mumbai’s (MU) board of studies (BoS) for law has opined that varsity rules don’t prohibit the college from conducting re-examination for these students. (HT File)

At a special meeting held on Friday, the board members discussed the issue of mass failure among approximately 270 students pursuing three- and five-year LLB courses at GLC. The students had complained that GLC had held that university rules don’t allow re-examinations. However, the board concluded the rules do allow the college to do so.

“The rules are silent on whether a re-test can be conducted or not. However, there’s a precedence of colleges, including GLC, conducting such tests for the last several years. Even the university conducts re-examination for students who fail their [theory] tests. There’s nothing in the rules that prohibit the college from holding an exam twice or thrice,” said the principal of a law college in the city, who was present at the meeting.

In previous years, the college has allowed students to take re-tests, but this time, no re-tests were permitted. Failing these internal tests means the loss of an academic year for the students, as they are not allowed to advance to take the theory exams or advance to the next year.

“The students were expecting a re-examination would be conducted, as has been the practice,” said Sainath Durge, a member of Yuva Sena, which has asked the university to intervene on May 3.

Members of the BoS said that GLC should have informed the students of its decision to not conduct the re-test at the beginning of the academic year. “While the college did issue a notice informing the students that there won’t be a re-test, it should have been issued well in advance,” said a BoS member.

Suvarna Keole, principal of GLC, did not respond to a request for comment.

The BoS has submitted a report to the university administration and the issue may be taken up by one of the higher bodies, such as the academic council or the board of examination and evaluation.