Patna: The post-graduation examination of a leading university in Bihar had to be postponed as the authorities forgot to print question papers.

Reports said 94 students turned up at Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU) on Thursday for a post-graduation examination in Hindi, but were shocked to find that the question papers were not available.

The examinees were politely told by the authorities to go home, saying the question papers could not be printed by mistake. Subsequently, the students left. Hindi, along with English, is the official language of India.

University authorities have since served show-cause notices to the officials concerned.

“We have served show-cause notices on the in-charge of the Hindi department and examination department official for this mess. They have been told to send in their reply by today [Friday] evening,” TMBU vice-chancellor Nalini Kant Jha said. He added the exams will be conducted on April 22.

This is not the first time the university has been embroiled in a controversy. Previously a shortage of answer-sheets has delayed the examinations. Authorities said initially the unused answer-sheets of previous years would be given to the students to write their graduation papers, which is scheduled to begin on April 25.

As per reports, the university requires at least 350,000 answer sheets for nearly 70,000 students who will be appearing at the examination this year.

Earlier this year, the state earned a bad reputation when the question papers of a clerical-grade examinations being conducted by the state-run Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) went viral on the social media ahead of the examination, prompting the government to cancel the examination and order an inquiry.

The probe by the Special Investigation Team of state police has resulted in arrest of 40 people so far, including BSSC chairman Sudhir Kumar, a senior official from the Indian Administrative Service, and secretary Parmeshwar Ram.

The inquiry has revealed it was the senior officials who leaked the question papers in exchange for money. Reports have revealed many coaching centres were involved in the appointment racket. A single candidate was charged between Rs500,000 and Rs800,000 (Dh28,478 and Dh45,565)for a job in a government department.