On September 9, students across the country appeared for Delhi University’s entrance exam to get admission at the Faculty of Law. However, by evening, they found snapshots of questions (uploaded on a computer screen) circulating on WhatsApp.
According to some students, DU never releases questions after the examination, and even rough papers are collected outside the examination hall. Students are upset with the paper leak and worry that it might impact the final cut-off list and give undue advantage to students who may have known the answers before-hand.
Photo circulating on WhatsApp since the day of the exam. Photo: special arrangement.
“I was told that some students got the answer key at around 6.40 am on the day of the exam and on the same day, I got a phone call where someone was offering bribe in exchange for the answers,” said Vivek Raj, a second-year student at the Campus Law Centre, who gives free coaching to aspirants applying for law entrance tests.
A lot of students reached out to him with the leaked papers and shared instances of other forms of cheating at various examination centres in Delhi.
“One student told me that at the Jahangirpuri centre, some non-staff members were roaming around the centre and were even trying to help some students solve the questions. At another centre, even the metal detector, which is used to check if students aren’t carrying anything that’s prohibited, was not used,” he added.
Yesterday, Raj went to the Maurice Nagar police station to file an FIR against the National Test Agency – a government agency that conducts entrance examination for higher studies. However, the police, he says, didn’t register the FIR.
Hence, he has filed a complaint.
A copy of the complaint filed at the Maurice Nagar police station. Photo: special arrangement.
He has also written emails to the dean of the Faculty of Law and the Bar Council of India, requesting a proper investigation in the matter. However, so far, he hasn’t received any response from anyone. LiveWire has also sent e-mails to the dean and will update this copy as and when they respond.
This isn’t the first instance of a paper leak in DU’s LLB entrance exam. In 2018, some students had alleged that the “paper was leaked” after the final results were declared, which students say, had some discrepancies. After the allegations, the dean of the law faculty had found one paper to be leaked and suspended one official soon for the same.
That year, DU had decided to switch to the online mode of examination for the very first time. They had hired a private firm called ApTech to conduct the examination, despite the fact that there were news reports on mismanagement at the hands of the firm during the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited entrance exam early that year.
Students appearing in the law entrance exam for admission in DU had complained about answer responses being tampered. Some students had also alleged mismanagement at some centres, where students were asked to sit wherever they wanted and the biometric verification also took place after the examination. LiveWire couldn’t confirm whether this year’s entrance exam was also conducted by the same firm.
“That’s the general scenario with DU’s law entrance exam. Paper leaks and tampering happens almost every year and now, in the pandemic, those who do these kind of activities, may have found it even easier to get their work done,” added Raj. “It’s clear in the photo [circulating on WhatsApp] that someone is taking the pictures without hiding their phones. If pen and papers are not allowed inside, how could that person carry his or her phone?”