NLIU Bhopal's entire student body is out at its gates in protest since 9am against alleged administrative opacity and arbitrariness on campus, after a failing fourth-year student was passed in an allegedly corrupt manner by the teacher who was evaluating his paper.

According to a letter of complaint addressed by the students to University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman and NLIU general council member Ved Prakash:

In a very recent development, a scandal involving deep rooted corruption was revealed in the University. In a blatant display of arbitrariness, the administration and faculty of the University colluded to pass a student - who was failing by more than 10 marks - on grounds of personal bias. Our college employs a system of coding papers to maintain anonymity and prevent preferential treatment while grading papers, and this instance in particular involved the increment of marks after the papers were decoded, and the professor was aware of the identity of the student. This was an unjustifiable exercise of discretion in an extremely arbitrary manner and when confronted, the professor gave us a flimsy explanation. She claimed that the question had not been evaluated, and thus she had increased 7.5 marks.

The paper to which the alleged scandal relates was of criminal law, confirmed a student participating in the protest.

The student commented: “Discontentment had been brewing for a very long time [but we were not able to protest in this manner because] we have always had an iron administration.”

The student said that they plan to continue the protest until a written assurance of action toward their four main demands - examination reform, a reform in the attendance system, removal of curfews on female students that are more stringent than those on the male students, extension in library timings.

Policemen arrived on campus briefly and asked the students to protest peacefully, but did not interfere with the protest, the student told us.

Summary of grievances

As per the letter to the UGC chairman, the students are demanding redressal of the following:

• Recurring delays in release of exam results
• Discrepancy in teaching curricula and non-accountability of teaching timelines
• Absence of model papers or standardised marking scheme
• Corrupt practices during re-evaluation
• Extension of library timings from the current 9pm during weekdays and 6pm during weekends, to atleast 1am and preferable 3am
• Administrative cooperation in attendance relaxation for special circumstances such as vertebral column injury, multiple fractures, students suffering a fall from multiple floors, among others. The administration has allegedly denied leave in the past for these reasons, according to the letter

NLIU director Prof SS Singh was not reachable for comment.

Read full letter