CET cell extends deadline for applying to MU's law courses

The Maharashtra Common Entrance Test cell today informed the Bombay High Court that it has decided to extend to August 31 the deadline for applying to the Mumbai University's law courses.
The commissioner of the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell apprised the high court that the decision to extend the deadline was taken as no response was received from the varsity on the announcement of examination results of undergraduate students.
He, however, added that "any further extension of the deadline would be difficult".
Initially, the CET had fixed August 5 as the deadline to complete the online application formalities. In light of the delay in announcement of results, it had extended the same to August 18, and then to August 24.

Today's announcement about the extension of deadline in the HC came as a major relief to the thousands of students who made it to the merit list of the law CET conducted earlier this year, but were unable to secure admissions to colleges of their choice in the absence of their undergraduate mark sheets.
The university, meanwhile, told the high court that it was tackling the delay on a "war footing".

It, however, failed to inform the court of the exact date by which the results of all undergraduate courses would be declared.
Rui Rodrigues, who was representing the varsity in the court, sought time till August 24 to give a clear picture of the likely date of the announcement of results.

Rodrigues told a bench of Justices Anoop V Mohta and Bharati Dangre that the delay had been caused primarily due to the technological glitches in the varsity's new online assessment system.
"These glitches, however, are being resolved. We have cancelled the leaves of all the teachers and asked them to concentrate only on assessing the answer sheets for now," Rodrigues said.
The university's decision to implement the online assessment system was a "well meaning" one, he mentioned.
He said the university had completed the assessment of the answer papers of over 14,000 students enrolled in the various arts, sciences, and commerce undergraduate courses, and that the remaining papers will be "assessed soon".

The state government, meanwhile, said the varsity's chancellor and the acting vice-chancellor were "personally supervising the assessment process," and that a new controller of examinations had also been appointed.
The bench has now directed the university to inform the court on August 24, the next date of hearing, of the likely date of announcement of results.
It has also asked the university to submit details of the number of answer papers remaining to be assessed for all undergraduate and final year LLB courses.
The court has been hearing a bench of petitions filed by students affected by the delay, and another petition by a teachers' association opposing the online assessment system.