The directorate of distance education building of Lalit Narayan Mithila University. Picture by Jitendra Kumar Shrivastava

A three-member committee has been set up to probe alleged irregularities in the BEd admission process at Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, this year.

Vice-chancellor Saket Kushwaha formed the fact-finding committee on Tuesday. The panel, led by dean of students’ welfare K.P. Sinha, has to submit its report in a week.

According to sources, admission rules were flouted in the admission of 500 BEd students under the directorate of distance education. For instance, a student’s admission was cancelled without any apparent reason, while records of three candidates admitted to the course can’t be found at the university.

Inspector of colleges Ajit Kumar Chaudhary and deputy director of directorate of distance education A.K. Poddar are the remaining two members of the probe committee.

This June, the university conducted a centralised entrance examination for admission of 900 BEd students. The figure comprised 500 distance students, 100 regular students at the university and 100 students each at three colleges under the university.

The examination department conducted the entrance test, CAT-2014, for all 900 students and submitted a list of candidates who qualified in the test.

While 100 students were admitted in the regular mode, only 492 students were taken in the distance course. Preliminary probe revealed a page in the admission register (with serial numbers 462-469) was left blank, a candidate’s admission allegedly cancelled by office assistant Promod Kumar Das and missing records of three candidates admitted.

Vice-chancellor Kushwaha said: “We have come to know that the directorate of distance education officials left a blank page in the admission register and admitted 492 candidates against 500 seats in distance education, among other irregularities. So, it was necessary to probe the entire matter. We have set up a fact-finding committee. Based on the committee’s report, we would take stern action against anyone found guilty of misconduct.”

For the first time this year, the Darbhanga university, around 175km northeast of Patna, conducted the entrance examination for its BEd course. Apart from the directorate of distance education, the courses are offered at BMA College, Baheri, (Darbhanga), RK College (Madhubani) and DBKN College (Madhubani) under the university’s jurisdiction. Each college has 100 seats.