About a dozen students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are caught in a state of uncertainty as a server malfunction prevented them from submitting their thesis on the last date for uploading.

The students had allegedly experienced delays in fulfilling all formalities prescribed by the university, which caused the eleventh-hour submission attempt.

They, however, experienced the technical roadblock when they tried to submit their thesis online on January 31, the last date for uploading of the document.

Delay in uploading of the thesis will push back the evaluation process and award of degrees.

At JNU, a student is enrolled at a centre or school of study.

According to the prescribed format of the university, a student on completion of research work will have to obtain a consent letter from their supervisor mentioning that the thesis is ready for submission.

The student is also required to take no-objection certificates from different offices like the finance wing, library, laboratory, hostels and the centre where he or she is enrolled.

The NOC takes about three to four weeks at times, which can delay the submission of the theses.

After the NOCs are ready, the centre or the school generates a form that has to be filled by the student. Then the thesis is uploaded by the centre on the website.

“In my case, I had finished all the formalities. But the server was down. The centre could not upload the thesis. Since that day, the thesis has not been uploaded,” said a student of the School of Computer and System Sciences.

The next day the students were asked by their centres and schools to take special permission from the evaluation wing for uploading the thesis because they had missed the deadline.

The students have submitted their grievances to the evaluation wing, which has forwarded them to the vice-chancellor Santishree Pandit.

The Telegraph sent an email to Pandit asking about the reasons for the delay in taking a decision on the uploading of the theses. Her response is awaited.

“The university should take decisions in the interest of the students,” a student said.

The University Grants Commission had allowed thesis submission deadline extensions five times since June 2020 — each relaxation spanning six months — in view of the pandemic. The last deadline expired on December 31 last year, following which JNU allowed another month’s extension.