Chennai, May 11 (IANS): The engineering semester examinations suspended or delayed owing to the total lockdown in Tamil Nadu will commence from May 25, the higher education department announced on Tuesday.

The government has also announced a retest for students who failed in the November/December semester examinations. This has brought a major relief to the engineering students of the state. The government communique also read that the students need not to pay any extra fee for writing the examinations.

The November/December semester exams were delayed due to the lockdown and held in February 2021. The exams were held in an online proctored mode and students were invigilated both by faculty members and Artificial Intelligence software.

It is to be noted that the Anna University had withheld the results of several students alleging malpractices, suspicion of malpractice, non-payment of fees as well as incompletely processed results. Many students have alleged that their results were unnecessarily withheld by the university.

Bharath Chandran, a student of a private engineering college affiliated to Anna University while speaking to IANS said, "The University has unnecessarily withheld my examination results. When I have contacted my batchmates and students of other private engineering colleges known to me, they said that the results of most of the students of private engineering colleges under the university is withheld. This is certainly something unheard of."

Anna University officials when contacted did not respond.