Mumbai University law students cry foul as results 'favour those with ATKT'

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Students of second year Master of Law who had cleared their first semester in one attempt are a dejected lot. While the Mumbai University declared their second semester results based on Sem I scores, they say it has given undeserved advantage to those who had ATKT (allow to keep terms).

The students say their classmates with ATKT were given the chance to take the Sem I papers online with multiple choice questions. This helped them score much higher and enhanced their average result for both semesters.

"Because I had cleared all papers in Semester I, my result for Semester II was the same. But a classmate who had one paper left from Sem I now has a better score than me. I am not against the chance these students were given to clear earlier papers, but UGC guidelines were compromised here," said a student.

The post-graduate law student said the university should have declared Sem II results first and then given the chance of solving the ATKT papers to such students. Amid the COVID pandemic, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had told universities to promote students, except those in final year, with a result that is declared based on evaluations held earlier.

"The MCQ pattern and online format of the exam was much easier than a traditional paper. This helped those with ATKT score much higher in those papers," added another student.

Vinod Patil, Mumbai University's director of board of examinations and evaluation, was unavailable for comment. An official from the department said, "Without giving students a chance to appear for a paper, we couldn't have continued the ATKT for the next semester results. Moreover, if the previous semester result is incomplete with ATKT, how can it be the basis for the next semester result."