The two Jadavpur University students who have been suspended for ragging a junior would be barred from writing the forthcoming semester exams for which they had filled in forms, officials said on Tuesday.

The exams start on November 20.

The final-year engineering students had filled in the forms late last month on the Salt Lake campus of the university where they attend classes and were awaiting admit cards.

“I don’t know if the two have filled in forms. Even if they have, they won’t be able to write the test starting November 20 as they have been suspended,” said Satyaki Bhattacharya, the controller of examination at JU.

The authorities had in August suspended one of the students for one semester and the other for two following a complaint against them lodged by a second-year student of information technology with the anti-ragging helpline of the UGC.

A letter informing them about the suspension reached the students in September.

Officials in the university’s examination department were initially uncertain whether the suspension was in force as former vice-chancellor Souvik Bhattacharyya had in October constituted a committee to review the quantum of punishment.

The decision to set up the panel followed a gherao of the VC and other officials for around 50 hours by students pressing for withdrawal of the punishment and lobbying by a section of teachers to reduce the penalty to month-long suspension.

Sources said officials had contacted the interim VC Abhijit Chakrabarti, who has succeeded Bhattacharyya, to find out if the two could be allowed to write the test.

“The vice-chancellor has made it clear that the duo won’t be able to write the upcoming test. If the executive council, the university’s highest decision-making body, decides to reduce the penalty, we will take a call,” said an official.

“It seems the two students won’t be able to write the test. We are yet to take any decision on the revocation of or reduction of the punishment... so the suspension stands,” said Chakrabarti.

Officials said they were at a loss to figure out whether the decision to review the quantum of punishment amounted to keeping the suspension in abeyance.

The issue became all the more confusing as Chakrabarti said soon after assuming office that he was open to re-investigation of the complaint and review of the suspension.

Officials said the review committee in its report submitted on November 4 recommended a lighter punishment. The exact recommendation of the panel, however, has not yet been revealed.

The university’s executive council will meet on November 25 to take a call on the fate of the two students. “At the meeting the details of suspension awarded by the anti-ragging committee, the plea of the students and the recommendation of the review committee would be tabled. The opinion of legal experts, too, would be taken up. The council’s decision would be forwarded to governor M.K. Narayanan, the chancellor of the university, for his perusal,” said an official.