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Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 11
A committee of Panjab University (PU) found that exam secrecy was breached in BA fifth semester geography paper which was held in December, 2016.
The report of the committee comprising fellows Dr BC Josan, who was chairman, Dr Rabindernath Sharma, and Dr Dalip Kumar and Deputy Registrar (Colleges) not only concluded that secrecy was breached, but also commented that the earlier report submitted by Prof SS Bari, retired from the Department of Chemistry, and Prof SS Chahal, Honoary Professor of Botany, was away from the facts and record with respect to the issues related.
The complaint
As per the complaint dated February 20, both Associate Professor Prem Sagar from the Post Graduate Government College (PGGC), Sector 46, and Dr Shivani Singh from the PGGCG-11, had alleged that they had received information that after they checked papers at the PU, someone broke open the seal of answer sheets and noted down details of over 200 students with their roll numbers and marks on a sheet of paper. There were other details like number of failed and passed students written on the page too.
They said roll numbers allotted by the PU were jotted down by opening the sealed ribbon on left side of answer sheets. They apprehended that at some places, marks of certain codes (fictitious roll numbers) were altered without their knowledge. They also alleged that changes were made either with concurrence of in-charge of evaluation centre or the person who was feeding data in computer.
Findings of the committee
The committee called both the complainants and Associate Professor KPS Shante, who was head examiner. Shante has now retired.
After their statements were recorded, the committee concluded in their report dated November 27 that the complaint of college teachers was not properly addressed and the copy of complaint was also not forwarded to the Principal of Government College of Commerce and Business Management, Sector 50, Chandigarh. The Principal was asked to conduct only review/scrutiny of answer books. The findings added that the Principal in her report had confined herself to the aspect of evaluation whereas the key factor as raised by the complainants were that secrecy of evaluated answer books being broken and university roll numbers might be elicited possibly by breaking the sealed ribbon band on left side of answer books.
Shante admitted that the documents containing the fictitious roll numbers and original roll numbers along with pictorial diagram made on these papers were made by him during the process of evaluation as head examiner. He also admitted that the writing on the paper was his own. He further stated that he had made this list just for his own knowledge and there was no bad intention in it.
Dr Rabindernath Sharma questioned how he could get the original roll numbers of the students whose roll numbers were hidden to maintain secrecy. Shante replied that some of the answer books were not properly pasted and some students had mentioned their roll numbers on maps attached with answer books.
“Dr Sharma pointed out that, “What was the basic purpose of revealing the original roll numbers against the fictitious roll numbers and maintaining the record which is actually to be disclosed after the declaration of result? The reply made by Shante was not satisfactory,” said the report.
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