Hon'ble Members of BCI & Members of Expert Committee on L.L.B Evaluations, 

We would like to bring to your notice the very recently announced, unreasonable and completely oppressive End semester examination policy of my University, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, where students have only been given 1 week to prepare for both viva and written exams only for 50 marks, without even interacting with the students and knowing their thoughts about the same.

Earlier in the semester, the University announced that they are going to conduct offline exams in the campus itself. They stood by this directive even as cases were rising across India and in Bangalore. Pursuant to internal requests by the student body, they announced on 18th April, 2021 that the exams have been postponed to June or July and will be conducted on campus. This period was previously supposed to be the School of Law's internship break, so many of the students scheduled their internships for the months of May and the first weeks of June.

Then, on 7th May, 2021 they communicated to us that the dates have been fixed as 21st June, 2021 to 3rd July, 2021. This is why most of us planned to continue our internships till 15th June. Additionally, it was stipulated if a department has internships as a part of the programme, which is the case with the School of Law, exams can be conducted in July. In this notice it was stated that there will be a viva-voce as an "important component of the exam." The student body scheduled their internships and planned preparations for their examinations accordingly. On 2nd June, 2021, the time table for our end semester exams was published on our 'Knowledge Pro' (KP) accounts which stated that the exams will be starting from 22nd June, 2021 to 3rd July, 2021. This gave us the presumption that our viva will also be taking place during this period, as nothing contrary to this was mentioned there.

However, on the midnight of 4th-5th June, 2021, we received a mail regarding the instructions about our examinations, which stated that the viva is going to start from 14th June, 2021 to 19th June, 2021. It is to be noted that this the first time any date before 21st June has ever been mentioned by the University in any official communication. The viva has been announced without informing us anything about the dates or even that they will take place before the written exams. Apart from this, teachers have the liberty to conduct vivas even before 14th if they teach combined classes (i.e. more than one section of a batch), starting from 12th June. This effectively gives a student 1 week to prepare for the full syllabus of 6 Law subjects, for both viva and written exams. The instructions sent to us are extremely troublesome, for reasons stated below:

1. The student body was given no prior communication about the dates of the viva and the fact that the viva is going to be including our entire syllabus.

2. The viva schedule has been given at a very short notice of 1 week which is not enough for preparation.

3. If a student misses their Viva slot for any reason, they will be marked absent. This is problematic considering the troubled time all students across the country are going through. The University is also not considering the fact that the viva is going to be taken through Webex and a student who might be facing internet problems or other technical difficulties, might lose the opportunity to appear for their viva entirely.

4. Most students are in the middle of their internships and it will be very difficult for them to bail out from their internships at such a short notice. 

5. In the written examination, we have been instructed to Upload the pictures of our answers. For the past 2 end semester exams that we have given online, we were told to 'Type' our answers directly on the Mettl platform and this system was completely fine by the student body. Now this rule has also been changed, without any reasoning, completely ignoring the technical difficulties this might bring up.

 

Our University has been following the Asynchronous form of teaching and learning and due to that, we have submitted almost 80 assignments in the last semester, only to claim attendance. This is exclusive of all the other exams we have given in the form of Continuous Internal Assessments (CIAs), such as tests, research papers, mid semester open book examinations and other assignments, for 50 marks. Now, the imposition of such a strict end semester examination pattern acts as an additional burden on the student body. The students of School of Law are extremely active on the co-curricular side of legal education, be it participation and meritorious performance in moots, ADR competitions, publications etc. We do not get any attendance or assignment exemption from College for participating in these activities. Managing all these activities along with academics is already difficult and now the end semester exams are going to hamper our internships. This is completely unfair, unjust and unreasonable. 

We understand that the Bar Council of India announced that they are going to release guidelines for conducting examinations for law colleges across India, on 2nd June. Keeping this in mind, the notification from my university and my department seems like a deliberate attempt to cause unnecessary stress to the student body and to conduct exams as soon as possible to avoid the potential orders passed by the BCI.

We are very much aggrieved by this pattern of examination on such a short notice. At this time, when many students lost their loved ones and are under extreme duress, emotionally, physically and even financially, this move by my college is insensitive and tone-deaf. As the regulator of exams for law schools across India. We request you to intervene in this matter and direct School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore to postpone the exams till BCI has come up with guidelines of their own. The student body of School of Law in intermediate years consists of more than 1000 students and this irrational examination policy will affect all of them. We fervently appeal to your office to take immediate and swift action in the best interests of students.