Mumbai University asks lawyers, CAs to assess papers

Mumbai: In a drastic move, Mumbai University (MU) passed a circular on Friday night that sought the help of practicing lawyers with the assessment of final year law exam papers in order to speed up the process. The results of final-year MU exams have been delayed for over three months. So far, no results have been announced pertaining to the law department.  The MU, via the circular, also sought the help of chartered accountants for the assessment of the ‘taxation’ subject of the commerce department.

The government will offer Rs 14 per paper to the lawyers. Before issuing the circular, education minister Vinod Tawde had discussions with some lawyers. “We had been called for a meeting where we were asked about what we feel about this programme,” said a senior lawyer.

Student groups, however, are unhappy with the move. “Advocates are lawyers. How do you expect them to assess our answer sheets when they are not our professors? They don’t know our syllabus or the paper pattern. Just because they are lawyers, would they know everything about our law paper,” asked Sachin Pawar, president of Students’ Law Council and a law student.

An official from MU’s law department stated on the condition of anonymity, “A teacher knows how to correct the paper and assign marks, which can’t be done by anyone except a teacher. If any goof up happens, who will take responsibility? It is a criminal offence to waste a student’s year.”

The major reason for the delay in declaring the results of law courses is a lack of faculty. Law has only 102 faculty members for assessment and most of them are lawyers, so they can’t spend the entire day assessing answer sheets.  Meanwhile, MU’s law department is positive about declaring all the results by next week. Dr Rashmi Oza, head of department said, “All post-graduation courses’ results assessment is done. It has been handed over to the central computing facility department, which will announce them by next week.”