Mumbai University exams postponed due to polls

The polling dates that were declared on Sunday are clashing with many state and national-level exams, and have forced rescheduling in some cases.

The Chartered Accountants (CA) exams earlier scheduled from May 2 to May 17 stands postponed to May 27 and will conclude on June 12. Earlier, the CA exams of May 6 and 12 were clashing with polling dates. While only two exams were clashing, the Institute of Chartered Accountancy of India (ICAI) thought it would be ideal to postpone the entire exam, including the intermediate and the finals. The revised schedule has been put up on their official website.

Over one lakh students appear for the CA finals in the country and around 1.5 lakh appear for the intermediate exam. Some papers for class X and XII held by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) too have been rescheduled. The exam will now conclude on May 4, instead of April 30.

Chairman of NIOS, Chandra Bhushan Sharma said that the board has decided to reschedule only those exams which were clashing with poll dates and not postpone the entire exam. He further said that they did not wish to postpone the entire exam as it would have delayed the results. A revised timetable has been put up on the site. He said that NIOS exams, taken by over 3.75 lakh students across the country, are held in CBSE schools, which were not available on poll dates. Some of the exams, falling on the later dates, are taken by fewer students.

All Mumbai University exams falling on April 22, 23, 24, 29 and 30 will have to be rescheduled too. Vinod Malale, spokesperson of the exam section, said the exams which are commencing on these dates will have to be entirely postponed. For other exams starting earlier, some papers will have to be postponed and the detailed schedule for the same will be released in a day or two. While the poll dates in the University’s jurisdiction will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, the day before and after will also have to postponed as colleges will be used as booths and teachers will be on poll duty.