After sending previous year’s question paper for exam, Mumbai University rectifies ‘glitch’

THE MUMBAI University (MU) on Tuesday faced a major embarrassment when it sent the previous year’s question paper for the Constitutional Law exam, leading to about an hour’s delay.

The paper from the second semester of the Bachelor of Law (LLB) 3-year course was scheduled to begin at 11am.

However, as soon as the exam began, and some colleges had distributed the question papers, they were informed by the MU to stop the exam and wait for further instructions.

“A new question paper was then sent and the exam finally began at noon. As expected, this delay in the first session further delayed the afternoon paper too,” said a professor from a law college in the city. Another professor shared how the last-minute changes led to panic in classrooms with many wondering if there had been a paper leak. “We were abruptly asked to not start the exam, without an appropriate reason. Meanwhile, an image of an old question paper started being circulated on mobile phones. It led to many suspecting a paper leak,” said the professor, also mentioning how it was only later in the day that there was clarity on what had actually happened.

“After the fiasco in the first session, we were focused on smoothly conducting the second paper. The examinees had to wait for almost an hour for the paper to start,” added another professor. Meanwhile, in an official response by the Board of Examinations and Evaluation at the MU, the varsity has clarified, “Due to a technical glitch, previous year’s paper was sent to colleges, by mistake, for the paper of Constitutional Law of the second semester of LLB-3-year course. After realising the glitch; a new question paper was immediately sent to colleges. The exam started at noon and students were given adequate additional time to complete the paper.”