At least one school of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has deferred its semester examinations indefinitely and more are set to follow suit, belying vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar’s claims of campus normality.

The School of Computer and System Sciences (SCSS) held an emergency meeting of the faculty members and decided to postpone indefinitely the examination for the July-December semester. The deferment means the ongoing process for the provisional registration of students for the next semester will become invalid unless the university further extends the semester examination.

While the SCSS has officially deferred the test, several other schools are mulling the option on account of most students being absent from the campus in the aftermath of violence. As the students are absent, the examinations are not being held.

After the students largely boycotted the term-end examinations last month over their demand for a fee hike rollback, the university administration had last week asked all the schools to reschedule the exams and complete it by January 20. All the schools had rescheduled their test from this week till January 14. But the examination halls are mostly empty.

“Under the prevailing conditions in JNU, the faculty unanimously decided that it is not possible to conduct end-semester examination as per the schedule notified (January 5, 2020, to January 14, 2020), and therefore, the end-semester examinations are deferred till further notice,” said a notice issued by the SCSS.

Saurav Sharma, a former leader of the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and a former joint secretary of the JNU students’ union, was appointed a faculty at SCSS in November 2019.

In all JNU schools, students have not been able to appear in the tests. Faculty members of the School of Social Sciences, the School of Life Sciences and the School of Languages told this newspaper that their departments would have to officially defer the tests.

“Only 15 to 20 per cent students are present on the campus. We cannot hold the test. The faculty members are already holding discussions. The examination has to be deferred,” said a faculty member at the School of Life Sciences.

Vice-chancellor Kumar met Amit Khare, the secretary of the human resource development ministry, on Wednesday morning and painted a rosy picture of the campus, stating that it was peaceful. Kumar told Khare that the online registration for the next semester was going on. The registration was stalled after the server was damaged by some students.

A media release issued by the Press Information Bureau said Kumar, along with Rector-II Prof Satish Chandra Garkoti, met the secretary and “apprised that the situation in the campus is presently peaceful”.

“They also informed that the communication and information system has been repaired and is now functional. The last date for student registration for the winter semester 2020 without fine has also been extended up to 12th January, 2020. As part of this registration process, about 3,300 students have since deposited fee for online registration,” the release said.

“University administration has appealed to all the stakeholders to maintain peace in the campus and not to get provoked by any misinformation. University authorities were advised by the ministry to make all out efforts for restoration of the normal functioning of the university at the earliest,” the release added.

The students are currently demanding removal of the vice-chancellor.

Two ministry officials said there was no charge on the basis of which Kumar’s removal process could be initiated.

“One option is that the government can ask the vice-chancellor to go on leave. In the past, there have been such instances. But the government is not very keen to use that option in case of JNU,” an official said.