Calcutta University has decided to initiate a probe against the examiners of three colleges, who have allegedly lost the Bengali MA first-semester examination’s answer sheets, a lapse that has come in the way of the publication of the results in the subject.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the university’s syndicate held on Tuesday.

The examiners of three colleges — two in Calcutta and one in South 24-Parganas — where postgraduate courses are run allegedly lost the answer sheets of 120 students.

The scores of these students were supposed to be uploaded on the university’s controller of examinations portal in September.

The students wrote the examination in April.

Interim vice-chancellor Santa Datta said they had come to know that some of the scripts were assessed and the marks had been uploaded on the portal of the examination controller, then the scripts got misplaced. The rest of the scripts could not be assessed at all as they were lost.

The university, in its syndicate meeting, resolved that they would ask students either to accept the highest marks scored in the other papers as marks for the lost paper or sit for a retest.

A CU official said students whose scripts were misplaced after the marks were uploaded could be asked to accept what has been uploaded. However, the only problem with this option is that the students will not be able to ask for a review as the scripts have been misplaced.

“The students will suffer for the lapses of these examiners. We will ask the principals of these colleges to initiate a probe against these examiners. The university will soon send a circular to the examiners in this regard,” said CU VC Santa Datta.

The results of 1,000 students are now held up.

A CU official said a decision on how the marks would be awarded against the lost papers would have to be arrived at without delay because these students will write their next semester examination soon.

“If they cannot get the results before writing the next semester examination it will be a matter of embarrassment for all,” the official said.

VC Datta said if the students decide to write the retests, then the university will treat these as regular examinations, not as supplementary examinations.

“We are trying to protect the interest of students. Ever since the decision was made that colleges would be asked to run postgraduate courses, problems have started cropping up. These colleges mostly engage guest teachers or the State Aided College Teachers (SACT), who are government-approved part-time teachers, for their postgraduate courses and this seems to be at the heart of the problem,” the VC told Metro.

A CU official said that over the past few years, the colleges with the required infrastructure were allowed to offer postgraduate courses to increase enrolment.

As the appointment of full-term teachers takes time, the colleges depend on part-time teachers.

Avirup Chakraborty, a student of the university who is the state general secretary of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, said: “Students are concerned as these lapses directly impact their grades and future opportunities. The university authorities cannot escape their responsibility.”