Students of Magadh Mahila College come out after taking their exam on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, March 25: As everyone was celebrating India’s momentous victory over Australia at Motera in the ICC World Cup quarterfinal, Patna University (PU) graduation and postgraduation students were preparing for a different clash: Their final exams, which began today.

While the first day went off peacefully for most, some students weren’t allowed to take the test because of attendance shortage. Others were ruled out because of foul play, that is, cheating.

The students who were debarred from taking the examination because of attendance shortage were all from the history department.

Bharti S. Kumar, the head of the department, history, said: “When the examination forms were being filled in the first week of March, the department had debarred 12 postgraduate second year students from taking the exams because of short attendance. Later, they approached the vice-chancellor (VC). On the basis of their plea, the VC allowed seven of them to take the exam.”

According to the norms of the university, students need at least 75 per cent attendance to take the exams. Kumar said: “The students who were disallowed to fill their examination forms had less than 10 per cent attendance.”

The students of the department, however, complained that pupils of other departments with less attendance were being allowed to take the exam while theirs were being left out. They have been protesting at the university for the past one month demanding they should be allowed to fill up the exam forms.

Kumar added that 28 first year postgraduate students have also been disallowed from filling up forms because of short attendance.

In Patna College, two students of the directorate of distant education (DDE) were expelled from the examination hall after they were found cheating. The magistrate at the centre suspended the duo after the invigilator pulled them up for using unfair means.

Barring them, the students who took the general studies examination today found the paper easy. “The questions were easy. All the questions were from the syllabus,” said Vinod Yadav, a DDE student.

Around 14,000 students took the exam today, of which 10,000 were undergraduate and 4,000 were graduates. PU administration has arranged for adequate deployment of security personnel at all the examination centres. Mobiles, calculators and other electronic gadgets were banned from the examination halls. The exams are being held at seven centres — Patna College, Patna Science College, BN College, Patna Women’s College, Magadh Mahila College, Vanijya Mahavidyalaya and Darbhanga House. PU central dispensary has been instructed to remain prepared for emergencies.

Postponed

Patna University (PU) has decided to postpone all exams scheduled for March 28 because of the varsity convocation. PU exam controller D.N. Sharma told The Telegraph: “All graduate and postgraduate exams scheduled on March 28 have been postponed because of the convocation.”

The university authorities have also decided to extend the deadline of filling up exam forms for second year undergraduate and first year postgraduate students till April 2. The earlier date was March 25.