Chatterjee's comments came in the wake of the poor performance by the BA and BSc Part I (honours and general) students.
Of the 64,000 candidates that appeared for the BA Part I (Honours and general stream) exam, just 28,000 have passed, the results published last Thursday revealed.
Urging the students to pay more attention to studies, Chatterjee said the university should have cautioned the students in advance over a possibility in fall of pass percentage.
"The Calcutta University itself has changed the rules so that government decided not to interfere in the matter. The general perception is due to change in rules of pass and fail and there is a dip in pass percentage," he said.
Chatterjee said a meeting of the university syndicate has been convened on February 6 and he has urged both the vice chancellor of the university and the syndicate to look into the matter.
"I have requested the syndicate to look into the matter so that the future of the honours students don't get affected. It has to be seen if old rules can prevail," he said.
In the BSc stream, around 11,000 students of the total 15,000 that sat for the exam passed.