Mumbai University’s law exam chaos sparks outcry

Questions are once again being raised by law students college faculty and student unions regarding the seriousness with which Mumbai University MU conducts law examinations A day after thousands of LLB SEM 1 students appeared for the paper on labour law and industrial relations they discovered that they discovered that almost the entire question paper followed the old syllabus instead of the changed syllabus and repealed laws as notified by MU in June 2023A faculty of law requesting anonymity said While the questions asked on strikes in Industrial Dispute Act 1947 is not only out of syllabus but the said act does not even exist in the given nomenclature as the Industrial Dispute Act is codified under the Industrial Relations Code 2020 This also means that the MU paper setters have not considered the revised syllabus and the amended laws in the country which the students were appraised and studied tooAn article by midday on December 20 2023 lsquoFirstyear law students in a quandary over labour lawrsquo highlighted the concerns of LLB course students at Mumbai University With barely a month before their examinations students were worried about the lack of a textbook for the subject Labour Law and Industrial RelationsCode 1Students could lose marksOn January 17 at 230 pm students were seated anticipating the Labour Law and Industrial RelationsCode 1 paper they had all prepared for but instead a gaffe was unearthed The questions were alien to the students they pertained to lsquoThe Industrial Disputes Act 1947rsquo while students had prepared for lsquoIndustries Code 2020rsquo Both legislations are related to the same topic but were drafted in two different eras This is just one example but there are many more Students are poised to lose marks When intimated to the college authorities they quickly relayed the message to Mumbai UniversityMeanwhile tensions peaked as another controversy eruptedmdashthe lastminute change in exam dates Torts scheduled for January 19 2024 interchanged with Contracts scheduled for January 22 This added another layer of chaos to an already chaotic situationCallous attitude of MUldquoThe scene was not limited to a particular law college in the city but was recreated even in other law colleges affiliated with MU The callous attitude of the university and the disregard it holds for students is appallingrdquo said the students who preferred not to be namedStudents feel let downldquoOur college authorities told us to write whatever we knew and they promised to sort it out with the university later It was really frustrating because our college is among the wellknown law colleges in Mumbai We trusted our college to provide us with the right guidance and their negligence in ensuring that we were prepared for the exam has left us feeling let down and abandonedrdquoldquoAfter the exam we received an email from MU saying that the paper was authentic even though it contradicted the syllabus that was officially posted on the universityrsquos website This whole situation caused a lot of mental and emotional distress for us studentsrdquo the disappointed students addedlsquoReexamination neededrsquoldquoIt is least expected that the law teachers must be updated with the syllabus leaving apart the recent judgments and case studies Such acts of teachersMU authorities put the entire legal education to shame It is highly imperative to conduct the labour examination with the new syllabus question paper at the earliestrdquo a law faculty associated with a law college affiliated with MU demandedWhile the varsity sets the question papers for the LLM SEM 1 examination from SEM 1 to SEM VI the papers are checked internally by respective law colleges for SEM 1 to IV Faculty experts say that it is high time the university changed this practice in the larger interest of students Colleges may be overlooking lapses in the said question papers while correcting inhouse papers a fact that cannot be ignoredldquoThe irony is that most of the law colleges including aided and unaided colleges do not have fulltime faculties and the situation is similar in Mumbai University where most of the posts are handled by visiting faculty instead of permanent staff who can be held accountable for such lapses which is not the case with visiting facultyrdquo pointed out an MU official who did not wish to be namedRefuting MUrsquos response to the studentsrsquo concern a law college principal said ldquoAll arguments are valid arguments but all valid arguments are not true The question paper and the syllabus though are not the same and instead of conducting reexaminations the students who appeared for the nonsyllabus questions should be provided with equal marks as per the MU norms for attempting a nonsyllabus questionrdquo ldquoFilling the vacant positions in MU at the earliest will be the only solution to tackle such a situation in the future as such incidents would only adversely impact the students for no fault of theirsrdquo the principal saidDispleasure expressedDr Vijay Namdeo Pawar founder president of Maharashtra Union of Secular Teachers MUST and member of the senate Mumbai University expressed his displeasure about the studentsrsquo plight and said ldquoBe it the recent LLB SEM 1 or the declaration of results for TY BA and TY BCom where students were shocked to learn that their answer papers were either completely unchecked or the papers not checked properly under the OnScreen Marking OSM system We will soon be meeting the Pro Vice Chancellor of the University and State education minister to discuss the issuesrdquoOn the other sideWhen contacted a MU spokesperson said ldquoComplaints were received from the students through some colleges to the university regarding the issue Appropriate decisions will be taken after verifying this complaintrdquoJan 17Day LLB Sem 1 first exam paper was held