Exam déjà vu? AMU law faculty reuses last year’s BA LLB Hons question paper; students oppose retest

For an end-term exam earlier this month, first-year BA LLB Hons students of Aligarh Muslim University got a question paper that was just last year’s paper with the marking scheme revised. Responding to protests by AMU Law Faculty students, the university cancelled the exam this week and has scheduled a re-exam for January 27, 2026.

The controversy centres on the “legal methods” (BLLB-105) exam held on December 4, 2025. According to students, the paper distributed was nearly identical to the one used for the same subject in the 2024–25 academic year, with only minor changes in question numbering and marking. Last year, the exam was scored out of 50 marks, with each of five questions carrying 10 marks. This year, the same five questions were allegedly repeated but the total was 70, with each question carrying 14 marks.

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“We realised the paper was from the previous academic year. It was mostly unchanged,” said Sameer*, a first-year BA LLB Hons student. “During the exam, some students raised objections, but we were told to go ahead and write the paper.” Ten days later, on December 13, Shakeel Ahmad, dean, AMU Faculty of Law issued a notice cancelling the examination due to “unavoidable circumstances”, and scheduled a re-examination for December 22. The notice didn’t say what those “circumstances” were. The last written exam was scheduled for December 20.

There are around 180 students in the first-year batch, all of whom had appeared for the same paper. The teachers for legal methods are Mohammad Nasir and Saim Farooqi.

“If the mistake was not ours, why should we write the exam again?” asked Sameer.

BA LLB Hons students protest

Students began protesting on December 15, holding demonstrations inside the law faculty and demanding that the examination either be evaluated or an alternative solution be found. The protests continued overnight, with many students staying back on campus.

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Another student of the same batch alleged that students faced pressure to stop their protest. “There was a lot of pressure. Some seniors and unknown outsiders came at night. One student was grabbed by the collar and abused. Many students, especially women, were scared and left,” he said.

Following the protests, the university issued another notice postponing the re-examination. Through a December 17 notice, AMU announced the legal methods exam has been rescheduled to January 27, 2026.

Students say the repeated changes have deepened uncertainty. “We received forwarded copies of the notices. We still don’t know who is accountable for what happened,” He said. “AMU has a strong academic reputation,” the student said. “Calling this an ‘unavoidable circumstance’ without explaining what actually went wrong is unacceptable. Students are suffering from an administrative lapse.”

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AMU response

When contacted, Nasir, one of the two legal methods teachers, said he was not authorised to speak on the matter and was not aware of all the facts related to the issue.

Shakil Ahmad, dean of the Faculty of Law, said he had no information about the matter and that the Controller of Examinations would decide on how the issue was to be addressed.

In a video statement, Mujib Ullah Zuberi, controller of examinations, said that the question paper prepared by the teacher was not presented before the moderation committee at the chairman’s office. Instead a sample paper submitted by the controller of examinations to the moderation committee was mistakenly sent as the final question paper, he said.

Zuberi said the university had identified the error and would take necessary steps to address it, adding that maintaining the sanctity of examinations was of utmost importance.