PU tries to bell the UMC cats

CHANDIGARH: An affidavit from a first class magistrate and a stamp from the college principal may come to Panjab University''s rescue. That, anyway, is the idea behind the new recommendations of the revising committee to check students involved in Unfair Means Cases (UMC).
Under PU rules the fate of a student involved in a UMC case is decided by the UMC committee, which may debar the candidate from taking any exam for more than a couple of years.
‘‘Some students who get involved in such cases at the entry level -- undergraduate course -- avoid appearing before the UMC committee. They go in for fresh admission in subsequent years in the same or other colleges, thus escaping any mention of punishment,'''' reads the report of the committee.
The recommendations suggest that all candidates seeking admission in first year undergraduate degree course or in the postgraduate degree course must furnish an affidavit duly attested by a first class magistrate explaining a gap in the years of regular study.
Also, the detailed marks certificate (DMC) of the qualifying examination (class XII mark sheet for admission in undergraduate classes and final year of the bachelors degree for taking admission in postgraduate courses) need to be stamped at the back with the college or principal''s stamp to authenticate the certificate and facilitate the university to catch the defaulting students.
However, the ridiculous ease with which an affidavit can be procured coupled with the fact the PU does not have a fool-proof system of its own for checking such lapses puts a question mark on the workability of the recommendations.
‘‘Ideally the examination branch in the university should be able to cull out the registration numbers of the students who do not come before the committees and then take admission elsewhere.
It is the clerical lapses which create such situations,'''' said a senior PU official adding that the university had devised no mechanism for checking such cases on its own.
Awaiting the nod of the syndicate meeting scheduled for March 13, PU is considering implementing the new decision for admissions in the coming academic session 2004-05. The revising committee also had the controller of examination Dr Sodhi Ram as one of its members.