Bombay HC raps Mumbai University for installing online system haphazardly

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday rapped the University of Mumbai for introducing the On Screen Marking (OSM) system haphazardly, as a result of which there has been an inadvertent delay in declaration of results. The court compared the introduction of the OSM to the demonetisation initiative of the central government wherein people were caught unawares and had to undergo a lot of problems. The petition was filed by the Bombay University and College Teachers Union (BUCTU) who complained that they were being harassed due to the flawed implementation and wanted relief from using the OSM system.

A division bench of Justices B R Gavai and Riyaz Chagla was hearing the writ petition filed by the teachers organisation wherein they highlighted the various problems they faced while assessing papers in the newly introduced OSM system by the UM. The petition said that the teachers were not responsible for the delay in declaration of results as they were not provided with essential infrastructure and related facilities like Internet connection among others.

The petition further contended that the university had decided on implementing the OSM at the last minute and did not take into consideration the infrastructure requirements as a result of which the teachers faced problems of downloading answer papers, uploading it and other software related problems.