Mahatma Gandhi University had exonerated nearly 75 B. Tech students involved in a case of suspected examination malpractice in May last year despite a report by an inquiry commission that the candidates received external help.
The commission, which consisted of faculty members of engineering colleges under the varsity, had ratified the finding by the Chairman of the centralised valuation camp (zone III at SCMS here) that the answers given by these students were identical.
The students had appeared for the Engineering Graphics paper (SI, S2 semesters B. Tech exam, May, 2014) and belonged to Gurudeva Institute of Science and Technology, Payyappady in Kottayam.
Curiously, an enquiry commission consisting of syndicate members Dr. N. Jayakumar, and Prof. B. Suseelan rejected the findings of the chairman of the centralised valuation camp and the committee of engineering teachers. They also acquitted the 75 candidates of all charges.
The syndicate resolution on the case, a copy of which is available with The Hindu , said that the students of EEE and ECE branches wrote the examinations along with other students of Civil Engineering and supplementary students. As they sat in different buildings, the alleged external help is not possible, it said.
The syndicate committee report also said that the “students might have answered in same sequence omitting the calculation and completing the drawing by simply transferring the approximate dimension using compass for question no. 7.
But the reports filed by the chief examiner and the expert committee of engineering teachers clearly mentioned that the students had attempted the same series of questions.
Interestingly, the committee members found that the answers were strikingly similar and all the 75 students also made the same mistakes, especially when it came to writing a value or a data in their answer sheets.
Engineering college teachers told The Hindu that the engineering graphics paper was one paper where many students used to fail as it mainly consisted of drawings. The pass percentage was below 50 per cent in several colleges, they said.
