Question paper mix-up sparks chaos in university’s law exam

MUMBAI: The University of Mumbai’s law department found itself in fresh trouble on Wednesday after another mix-up in question papers, this time in the Semester 2 examination of the three-year LLB course. The subject in question was ‘Law of Crimes’, but the right question papers went to the wrong students.

Students in the ATKT (Allowed To Keep Terms) category, who were to receive question papers based on the Indian Penal Code (IPC), were instead given papers meant for freshers based on the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Some students even claimed they received two different versions during the same exam!

“We began writing the paper at 10:30 am. After 30 minutes, invigilators told us to stop. They said we would be getting a new question paper. We resumed the exam only at 11:30 am,” said a student from Siddharth College.

According to the revised syllabus, fresh students are to be examined on the BNS, while ATKT students were to answer questions based on the older IPC framework. However, one student said, “Initially, I received the correct BNS-based paper but then they gave me another one, based on the IPC. When I raised the issue, the examiner refused to help and told us to continue.”

This is the latest in a string of exam-related blunders by the law department. On April 8, chaos erupted when the wrong question paper for Labour Law and Industrial Relations–2 was sent through the university’s digital paper delivery system. Students were caught off-guard, as the paper did not contain any of the topics they had studied. A delay of nearly 30 minutes added to the panic.

In another case, a college in Chembur distributed an expired question paper on the Indian Evidence Act instead of the current version.

A Mumbai University official stated, “The Law of Crimes paper was scheduled for May 7, and papers were dispatched to all colleges as per the timetable. A new paper was issued because errors were identified in the original.”