MUMBAI, May 11: The University of Mumbai finally admitted before the Bombay High Court on Friday that there were definite discrepancies in the fifth semester chemical engineering examination paper of `Mass Transfer Operation', held in December last year.

University advocate Rui Rodrigues stated before Justice Y S Jahagirdar, conducting the vacation court, that a university panel comprising three engineering professors had come to the conclusion that there were mistakes in the concerned paper.

Express Newsline had carried a report in January this year on how the third year chemical engineering students were very upset with the bloomers in the MTO paper, amounting to a total of 54 marks. Since a majority of students had failed in the paper, 22 students from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College (TSEC), Bandra, filed a writ petition on April 23, making the varsity the respondent.

``There were some really glaring errors in the MTO paper. For instance, some of the problems that appeared in the paper were directly lifted from text-books which had referred to certain appendices, but the same were somehow not carried in the exam paper, thereby leaving the students stranded,'' said one of the petitioners' counsel, Z A Jariwala. Three graphs were also printed in the paper without providing adequate data to solve the problem. ``It's taken the varsity five long months to come to such a simple conclusion, while all the while we were desperately trying to bring these irregularities to the notice of the authorities,'' commented one of the affected students. Said another, ``Though we did officially complain to the university officials about the matter, no assurance was given to us. "And since the ATKT paper was to be held on May 14, we were left with no choice but to move court.''

Earlier, two letters had also been written in this regard to the concerned officials by the TSEC's Head of Department Dr G D Nageshwar and a senior professor of chemical engineering, R K Pathak, in order to support their claim. The affected students are mainly from TSEC, Bharatiya Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College of Engineering and Jhondale College of Engineering, all from Navi Mumbai. While the case has been adjourned to Monday, the matter has been now referred to the Controller of Examination of the University of Mumbai, A Y Joglekar. Apart from Jariwala, S U Kamdar is also representing the petitioners in the high court.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.