Calicut University: 200 answer sheets of first-year BCom students go missing 

A bundle of 200 answer sheets of the first semester regular B.Com students has allegedly been gone missing from the custody of Calicut University. It is learnt that the answer sheets are of the English exams held in November 2020.

As a result of this, the university had to put publishing the BCom first semester results of four colleges on hold though it published the results of the same examinations for other colleges this month. If the university fails to find out the answer sheets, around 200 students will have to write the exam again.

A university syndicate member of the opposition Rasheed Ahamed alleged that the serious lapse on the part of the university had led to the incident of missing answer sheets.

"Other than the latest incident, answer sheets have gone missing from the custody of the university many times before. The university doesn't follow any proper system to handle the answer sheets coming from the colleges. There is no proper facility to store the answer sheets and store the data of the answer sheets digitally. Whenever the varsity loses answer sheets, the authorities arrange special examinations for the students. Students are forced to suffer because of the inefficient system and people of the university," he said.

Meanwhile, student unions including Muslim Students Federation (MSF) and Kerala Students Union (KSU) have announced protests against the university against the answer paper missing incident. The university authorities denied the allegations.

Riju Lal, a university syndicate member, said they had taken measures to recover the missing answer sheets. "We doubt a mix-up of the answer sheets of the regular students with the answer sheets of distance education students. Hopefully, we will find the missing answer sheets while evaluating the answer sheets of the distance education students," he said. He also said the university would conduct an investigation into the incident if it fails to recover the missing answer sheets.

"If the investigation finds fault on the part of the officials with the university, stringent actions will also be taken against them. Adequate measures will be taken to protect the interests of the students in this case," Riju Lal said.