An explanation submitted by the Vice Chancellor himself notwithstanding, the controversies surrounding the Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) are refusing to die down with the Governor’s office now asking for a specific report on the request by a Syndicate member for answer sheets prior to the publication of results.
The directive, issued on December 2, follows a complaint in this regard, submitted by R.S. Sasikumar of the Save University Campaign Committee. Besides seeking the report, a copy of the said complaint too has been forwarded to the VC for verification.
Letter to Governor
The VC had on November 7 sent a letter to the Governor’s office admitting to the receipt of the request by R. Pragash, convener of the Syndicate subcommittee on Examination Affairs and promised to be ‘more careful while issuing orders on requests or similar issues’.
In his letter, the VC also explained that the answer sheets were sought for validating some exam related software and to look into some issue pertaining to publication of results.
He further added that the matter had been discussed with Mr. Prakash and ensured that the secrecy and results were not affected by the said act.
The issue
The issue pertains to a letter, written by R. Pragash, a Syndicate member and endorsed by the VC, which asked the Controller of Examinations to provide details, including answer sheets and register numbers corresponding to the false numbers of 31 students, who had appeared for the MCom IVth semester examination in Advanced Cost Accounting.
The letter, according to critics, amounted to violation of the university’s examination rules as it would break confidentiality of the answer sheets.
