The student, who failed her BA Part I examination last year, had applied for reevaluation way back in August 1998. More than a week after she finished taking her Part I exams all over again this year, she received her marksheet stating clearly that she had passed her BA Part I exams taken in April 1998.

While the girls' parents are agitated over the delay and "harassment" caused to them, the PU Controller of Examinations, Dr Sodhi Ram maintains that revaluation is an extra facility extended to candidates and the university is not under obligation to declare reevaluation results within a given period of time. He, however, admitted that the delay was caused due to a lapse on part of his office.

The student had appeared for the BA I exams in April 1998 and was declared failed after she was awarded below minimum pass marks in three subjects. She received her result-cum-detailed marks card in the first week of August 1998. ``She had not expected to fail so we promptly applied for reevaluation,'' the girl's father Mohinder Pal Singh, said.

Singh added that after applying for reevaluation, they made repeated enquiries at the PU. "We were told that if she passed we would receive the result card well in time," he said. In the meanwhile, the student enrolled again in the college and took her exams for BA Part I, which concluded on June 3. Now she has received the marksheet for the result declaring her having obtained more than 66 marks. "This difference in marks also points out at the faults in the system of evaluation," says Singh.

The marksheet does not bear the name of the parents of the candidate or the date of despatch. However, the marksheet was despatched by the PU authorities on June 9, Sodhi Ram admitted after he was shown the envelope in which the result card was contained. A senior official in the examination branch points out that the marksheet not bearing a despatch date "could be a deliberate attempt to hide the delay."

When questioned on the delay in the despatch of result, the Controller asserted: "There is no upper limit on the time period for declaring the result. The marksheet can always be delayed but the result was communicated to her college about three weeks before the exams began. Besides, reevaluation is only an extra facility that the students are getting. We will give her the choice of retaining the better result from the two years."

On the other hand, the parents of the student are planning to approach higher authorities and demand adequate compensation. "We will go to court if necessary," says the girl's father.