Law colleges will conduct exams other than final yr

Mumbai: In a major decision, the Mumbai University (MU) on Saturday announced that next examination onward, all law examinations save for the final year will be conducted by law colleges instead of the varsity.

Newly-appointed vice-chancellor (VC) of the MU, Dr Suhas Pednekar, cleared the air amidst speculation about handing over the responsibility to law colleges following delay in declaring results. The decision was approved by the academic council of the MU.

Effectively, examinations of the first two years of the three-year L.L.B course and the first two years of the five-year course will now be conducted by law colleges. However, the question papers for these will be provided by the university, and colleges are expected to follow the same examination schedule set by the MU. Sources said that the reason behind the move was to speed up the process by shifting some of the MU’s burden onto law colleges.

During the winter examinations conducted in January, the results of the law faculty were delayed by four to five months as the varsity did not have enough faculty or teachers for assessment of papers. There are 48 law colleges in Mumbai which are affiliated to the MU but the varsity has only 193 faculty members or teachers.

Apart from the law faculty, for all other courses under the MU, examinations of all years except the final year are managed by colleges.