OP Jindal Global University rubbishes LLM student's allegations on AI use in exam, 'will report misconduct’

NEW DELHI: OP Jindal Global University has issued a statement with regard to the recent high court petition filed by an LLM student who was marked “failed” after using 88% AI-generated answers. The university will also be approaching “relevant regulatory bodies to report the professional misconduct of the petitioner, who is also an advocate and an officer of the court”.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a notice to the OP Jindal University and sought response on a plea filed by the LLM student against the administration’s decision that he used AI to pass an exam. The next hearing has been posted on November 14.

The petitioner, Kaustubh Shakkarwar, is enrolled as a student in the LLM programme specialising in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Jindal Global Law School. The university said that he appeared for his end-term exam titled ‘Law and Justice in a Globalizing World’.

JGLS provides proof for AI use in exam

The exam submission was put through Turnitin, a technology used to “identify unoriginal work instantly by comparing student submissions against the world's largest collection of internet, academic, and student paper content”.

“The Turnitin report highlighted 88% AI-generated content in his end-term submission for this course. The student’s conduct was reported to the Unfair Means Committee of the University. Given the high percentage of the AI generated content which challenges the sanctity and integrity of the examinations, he failed this examination in terms of UGC Anti-plagiarism Regulations, 2018. He was given a re-sit opportunity, which he undertook and later passed the course,” the university said. During the hearing on November 5, the petitioner contended that the university had not produced any evidence of use of the alleged AI-generated content.

Further, the university alleged that the petitioner in question has been spreading “factually incorrect, misleading, and prejudiced statements in social and online media on a matter which has become sub judice with the malicious intention to influence public opinion and thereby decision-making”.

“This act of the Petitioner is in abject disregard of judicial propriety, threatening the independence of judiciary. Such acts of social media discussion on matters sub judice has been condemned by the Supreme Court of India,” it added.

Listing the recognition it has received, the university said it will continue to pursue this case on merits before any legal forum. Additionally, “the University is of the sincere opinion that since this matter pertains to adopting unethical practices in pursuit of academics including academic honesty and integrity of the examination process, no one would disapprove, in principle, the stand adopted by the University”.