The Anti Corruption Youth Power, Assam, on Monday alleged that the entrance examination for the LL.M course in Jnanadabhiram Borooah Law College in the city was riddled with irregularities and filed an FIR at Chandmari police station against principal Malobika Talukdar, who has denied the charges.
Applications were invited for 50 seats in the LL.M course of the college and 90 students took the exam on December 24. A total of 12 applications were rejected because of “insufficient documents” on December 22 but seven out of them were allowed to sit for the exam, having submitted the requisite documents before the exams. The results were declared on December 29.
Organisation president Dharma Kanta Gogoi said, “Two candidates were allowed to sit for the exam in return for a huge illegal gratification. One is a relative of a faculty member. There has also been misuse of funds. The college did not complete the registration process and should be taken over by the government.”
Talukdar told this correspondent seven candidates were allowed to sit after submitting the required documents. She refuted the allegations as baseless.
Talukdar maintained that only those with cut-off marks of 50 per cent for general category and 45 per cent in case of reserved categories were allowed to take the exam and those with merit were selected after scrutiny of marks obtained.
“We had asked the rejected candidates to submit the required documents before or on the date of the examination. I did not want to deprive anybody of a seat in the college and the candidates who submitted documents on time were allowed to take the exam. Our college is one of the premier law colleges in the region and many aspire to study in it. There were no irregularities in conducting the exam and everything was above board. I am not aware of the other matters,” Talukdar said.
The principal showed this correspondent the documents submitted by the candidates and expressed astonishment at some of the other allegations, like spending of funds, as they were internal matters of the college.
The organisation had also alleged that an assistant librarian, Irfan Izaz, illegally helped examinees with answers.
Talukdar admitted to using administrative staff in conducting the exam owing to dearth of manpower but negated their ability to use unfair means.