Upset over the delay in announcement of results by Mumbai University, three final year law students filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court seeking action against the university over a delay or they be paid Rs 10 lakh as compensation.
The petitioners — Sachin Pawar, Abhishek Bhat and Ravishekhar Pandey — said in their petition that because of the delay, caused apparently due to the university’s new on- screen assessment system, they had lost the chance to secure admission in several national and international universities for their master’s degree as the new academic session in most of these institutes had already commenced.
The delay, they said, had adversely affected their career.
The petitioners argued that they also missed out on several employment opportunities as most public sector companies and private firms ask the applicants to furnish their under-graduate exam results.
They also claimed that this was not the first instance of the results getting delayed, since the reply to an RTI query had revealed that of the 388 examinations conducted by the MU between June and December 2016, the results of 210 were delayed.
In the plea, filed through lawyer Satish Talekar, the students sought that the MU be directed to make arrangements to ensure that eligible students secured admissions in other universities despite the delay, an inquiry commission be constituted to look into the reasons for the delay, a supervisory committee be formed and directed to look into the announcement of results in the future and the petitioners be awarded monetary compensation for the agony endured by them.
As per the plea, the petitioners’ LLB final semester exams ended on May 30 and though, as per the rules, the results should have been declared within a maximum period of 45 days, there was still no word from the authorities on the same.
The petitioners also said that although the state had issued directions to the university to communicate the delay to all other universities in the country, and request them to consider the applications of such students, “such a direction is not legally enforceable”.
Besides, the state government’s decision to review the MU’s academic calendar for the subsequent years would result in delaying the next year’s exams, they added.
A division bench of justices Anoop V Mohta and Bharati Dangre is likely to hear the petition on Monday.
