MYSORE: The controversy surrounding admissions to the postgraduate course in Communication and Journalism in the University of Mysore has taken a new turn with the Karnataka High Court issuing summons to the Registrar, Registrar (Evaluation) and the Chairman of the Department of Studies in Communication and Journalism.

The court has issued summons to the officials after four students filed a writ petition questioning the university Academic Council's recent decision to annul the entrance examination and cancel the admission of four students.

The court has directed the university to withhold the results of the fresh entrance examination held on July 21 till the dispute is resolved. In its order issued on Thursday, the court summoned the officials to appear before it within five days.

In a statement, P. Chandrashekar, Somanna I.M., Basavaraju B. and Beeresh, petitioners, said the entrance examination for the course was held on June 24. But the examination was mired in a controversy soon after allegations were levelled against the Chairman of the Department, Mahesh Chandra Guru, that he distributed papers to some candidates and also assisted them in writing the examination, they added. In response to the allegations, Dr. Guru issued a clarification that the papers were not in his custody before the examination was held and contended that he could not be held responsible if question papers had leaked. He had termed the allegation that he assisted students in the examination "baseless." He pointed out that there had been no written complaint against the alleged irregularity. Meanwhile, four students, who had cleared the entrance examination, were made to pay the admission fee on July 6 and admitted to the course. But the Academic Council meeting on July 15 decided to annul the entrance examination and cancel the admission. The petitioners contended that the university's decision was based on the complaint made by some students, who had failed in the entrance examination, and reports appearing in a section of the media.

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