Unbelievable, but true. That was the case with one Jignesh Soni, who appeared in the March 1998 higher secondary examinations conducted by the Gujarat Secondary Education Board. Though his 47.13 per cent aggregate is above the Commerce faculty final cut-off of 44 per cent, he secured 28 each in Business Maths and English. This makes him ineligible for a `pass' certificate in the higher secondary examination and, consequently, admission to the Commerce faculty.

Commerce faculty dean B S Patel, however, is not the least shocked by the incident. ``Such mistakes are inevitable when one considers the volume of students seeking admission to the faculty, though we do have the largest admission committee, comprising 10 teachers'', he says.

When asked how come all 10 failed to see during scrutiny of applications that the student had not cleared his Board examinations, Patel has no answer.

However, he clarifies that the admission granted by the faculty authorities was only provisional, and is finalised after eight months. ``They may even be cancelled by the academic section of the university'', Patel says, adding that the admission process for the current year was not over yet.

To secure admission, a student has to pukrchase the forms and submit it to the admission committee chaired by the dean of the faculty. It is after the forms are scrutinised that a student is given temporary admission, which is later finalised by the university authorities.