Allegation of mismanagement in conducting C-RET exam of law deptt in Assam Univ

August 20: Severe displeasure was expressed by the students who appeared for online C-RET examination in Law department conducted by Assam University. In this connection, a memorandum was submitted by the aggrieved students and also by the ABVP Unit. The online examination was held on 17 August, 2020.

However, the students aired severe grievance on the technical aspects of the said online examination. In a press release, the aggrieved students wrote, “Notification dated 04/08/2020 vide File No. AUK-201/29/2020-21 issued by Registrar, Assam University under clause 10 says that each academic department shall organise a C-RET comprising of MCQs/ short/long answer type questions. That means either of these methods was to be adopted and it leaves no ambiguity or discretion on the part of the academic department whereas in the case of Law Department, a mixture of MCQ and long questions was adopted which clearly contradicts the notification issued by the Registrar.”

The aggrieved students further wrote, “Only one day before the online C-RET examination, it was notified by the HOD, Law in a WhatsApp group that 10 questions from general Law shall be asked; whereas in the question paper, it was found that maximum questions from the Law category were from International Law. Now this paper (and mainly case laws) does not even form a part of LL.M syllabus of Assam University.

They also expressed displeasure on the ground that constant noise of candidates and instructors during the live video “made the exam not less than a fish market and the environment was never exam friendly, as there was no peace of mind which is sine qua non when attempting any examination of high standard.”

It was further alleged that in one hour only, the applicants were supposed to answer 20 MCQs, maintain persistent video conferencing and answer two descriptive questions and compile the same, scan it and convert the same in PDF format and then upload these in the Google form itself or send immediately in WhatsApp or through email. There was not even a mock trial conducted by Law dept before the examination. Further, Law dept has two type of PH.D. i.e. PH.D in Law and PH.D. in interdisciplinary subjects like Sociology, History. As per University prospectus out of 13 seats 08 seats are reserved for non-law papers (04 seats for History by Dr. Nasiruddin Khan and 04 seats for Sociology by Dr. Suranjan Das) But, questions were asked only from Research methodology and Law which made it difficult for non-law students to understand and answer the same.

It is in this context that the aggrieved aspirants who appeared in the C-RET of Law Department, appealed to the Vice Chancellor stating, “For the end of justice and academic excellence, either the concerned examination is taken again or 10 marks be awarded to each candidate for the purpose of securing minimum marks in written C-RET examination in order to qualify for Viva Voce examination.”