Authorities of Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, on Wednesday changed their position twice on the claim made by P.M. Arsho, State Secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), that he had not applied for the third-semester examination of the 2021-22 batch of the postgraduate programme in Archaeology and Material Cultural Studies.
The mark list controversy erupted on Tuesday after the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) alleged that the mark list had mentioned that Mr. Arsho had passed the exam, though the total cumulative point was mentioned as ‘zero’.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Arsho stated that the mark list that came in the public domain on Tuesday was related to the 2021 batch and he belonged to the 2020 batch. He claimed that he did not remit the fee as part of the registration process for the third-semester exam as he was out of station.
Principal V.S. Joy, who spoke to the media in the morning, rejected his claim and showed a document stating that he had applied for the third-semester supplementary exams after remitting the fee prescribed, though he did not appear for it. Within a few hours, he retracted his statement and pointed out that Mr. Arsho had not paid the fee for the third-semester exam even though the online system in the exam wing had shown that he had registered for it. This was revealed after verification of the documents and it seems that his name had figured on the list owing to a technical glitch, he said.
The college authorities said in the morning that his name had figured on the mark list as he took re-admission in the 2021-22 batch after being removed from the roll in the third semester for lack of attendance. An internal inquiry has been constituted to look into the allegations. The report will be submitted before the Department of Higher Education, they said.
Mr. Arsho demanded action against the Principal for the initial statement that he had remitted the fee for the exam.
