Protesting against the alleged discrimination against 18 students of Sophia College and 31 students of Hinduja College, who have been debarred from the upcoming final examination, the students condemned the varsity for allowing 53 students of Ramnarain Ruia College to take the final test.

Amid the chaos, which brought a contingent of the State Reserve Police to the campus at Fort, they demanded to know why the Ruia College students were given the go-ahead when they too had failed to meet the 75 per cent criterion like their counterparts from Sophia and Hinduja colleges.

Representatives of the students, who screamed for justice, were finally given an audience with Vice-Chancellor Dr Snehalata Deshmukh, who was adamant on debarring them fromthe exam. She said the 18 students from Sophia College would be held back, while a decision is yet to be taken on the 31 students from Hinduja College.

The sit-in was the second, where the campus was rent with slogans like,``We want justice... university hai, hai.''

Senior Police Inspector of the Azad Maidan Police, Suresh Manar told Express Newsline police had received a call saying there was trouble on campus. ``They were there as late as 7.30 pm,'' he said.

General Secretary of the Hinduja Students' Council, Pratiksha Vyas, and Secretary Viswanath Sangle told the vice-chancellor that there were gross irregularities in attendance-taking, with professors marking attendance on loose sheets, ignoring the register.

They also said the Hinduja college authorities had said students with a minimum two days' attendance could take the exam. Can the college make such outrageous statements when that comes nowhere near the 75 per cent norm, the student leaders asked. They also wondered what difference existedbetween students who had a single day's attendance compared those who had attended classes for two days.

Dr Deshmukh said the university would take up the matter with the college principal to probe this strange logic. She also said she would discuss attendance-taking procedures and formulate a common attendance pattern for all colleges at the Academic Council meeting on April 16.

Dr Deshmukh conceded that the lone Ruia student allowed by the college to take the exam had an attendance record which not only flouted the 75-per cent norm but her attendance was lower than that of some of the others who had been debarred from the same college.

``In the Ruia case, there is prima facie evidence of one student having low attendance being allowed to sit for the exam against students with a higher percentage,'' she said.

Students had assembled near the vice-chancellor's chamber at around 4 pm. But when their numbers swelled, university officials asked them to wait outside the main gate. As their frustrationmounted, the situation took a turn for the worse.