MUMBAI, May 30: Mumbai University has declined to entertain a TADA detenu's complaint that he could not appear for his M.Com. examination because the university did not inform him of the examination date.

In a letter to the Institute of Distance Education on Tuesday, TADA detenu Khan Sardar Shahvali Khan, a bomb blast accused lodged in the Arthur Road jail, claimed he could not sit for this year's M.Com (Part-I correspondence course) exams due to the university's negligence.

His complaint was dismissed by both the university and the IDE, which handles the course. ``Being a TADA detenu does not give him any special benefit. A student of distance education has the only benefit of not having to attend classes,'' the university's public relations officer, Surendra Tanna, told Express Newsline.

IDE director M S Kambli said institutes normally do not intimate students individually. ``But we take care to individually inform them about the exam date.''

Khan could not be contacted but his advocate, S G Abbas Kazmi, said: ``Khan did not receive any intimation about the exam date. If the institute claims it had informed him, surely it must have some proof.'' Kambli said it was not possible for the institute to keep a tab on such circulars as it had to handle about 20,000 students. ``But then we haven't received any complaints similar to Khan's,'' he said.

``Since someone was coordinating on Khan's behalf from the beginning, of which we have proof, there was little room for us to be extra-careful in his case,'' Kambli observed. Kazmi, however, maintained no one was acting on Khan's behalf. Moreover, he added, when Khan met the vice-chancellor this February requesting for a change of subject (the request was turned down as it came too late), he was told he would be informed about the exam date and time.

But Tanna held that it was the student's responsibility to know the examination date, notwithstanding the circular issued by the IDE to all students. There was also no change of schedule, he added.

While Kambli maintained that he received no letter of complaint from Khan, Kazmi said it was dated May 27 and mailed by the jail authorities on Wednesday. This was confirmed by jail sources.

Khan, who graduated in commerce from the Akbar Peerbhoy College in 1985, said in his letter that he had negotiated with a firm to write their account books in prison. But due to his inability to take his exams, he would not be able to clinch the contract and thereby lose a lot of money. Kazmi said Khan was considering claiming a refund of his fees.

Kambli said Khan could still enroll for his M.Com (Paper II) and appear for the Paper I exam in October. ``Then all he will have to pay is the exam fee and not the entire course fee. He will only have to clear the paper to be allowed to sit for the Paper II exam next May."

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.