The decision to postpone the exam, earlier scheduled for April 12, was taken by the university's Board of Examinations (BoE) at a meeting today so that the 102 students who had passed with the additional eight marks will have time to prepare for the re-exam.

The revised time-table will be dispatched to medical colleges soon, according to the university's Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Naresh Chandra. Students can now tender their application forms for the examination by April 20, without paying the late fee.

Also, applications for re-evaluation of the original result will still be considered. Several students, who had applied for re-evaluation of theoriginal results declared on January 12 had withdrawn their applications after the grace marks were awarded. Besides, students who wanted their original results re-evaluated but failed to submit their applications within 15 days of the declaration of the results, are also eligible. The last date for submission of application forms is April 12. Moreover, the results of those whose marks were revised after re-evaluation will be declared soon, Dr Chandra said. The revised results of the remaining students will be announced by April 15.

The BoE had convened an emergency meeting today to discuss the chancellor's order withdrawing the controversial grace marks awarded by Vice-Chancellor Dr Snehalata Deshmukh in the Preventive and Social Medicine (PSM) paper on January 25. With the chancellor's order, 64 students who had earlier passed the final year MBBS exam with the grace marks as well as 38 others in the PSM paper, are now deemed to have failed.

Soon after the BoE meeting, another meeting of deans of thenine medical colleges in Mumbai affiliated to the university was convened. Faculty members of the PSM subject were also present. The deans and faculty members were thus briefed on the decisions taken at the BoE meeting.

They were also requested to conduct the preliminary exam (internal assessment) in the PSM paper for the 102 students who had benefitted by the grace marks. In the 100-mark PSM paper, 20 marks are set aside for internal assessment. Students who fail thus get a chance to improve their performance. However, since most medical colleges have already conducted this exam -- after declaration of the revised result -- they have been requested to hold the preliminary exam again.