SC tells CBSE to defer pre-medical test results

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Central Board of Secondary Education to hold the declaration of results of the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) 2015-16 for another week, while directing the Haryana police to complete the probe into the exam fraud which involves students from several States.

Scheduling the next hearing for June 10, a Vacation Bench headed by Justice Prafulla C. Pant said it would decide on that day whether to order fresh conduct of the exams, originally held on May 3.

The results were to be declared on June 5.

The court asked the police to identify as many candidates as possible who had benefited from the leak and file a fresh probe report on June 10.

“We want to be doubly sure that there is no alternative but to order re-conduct of the examination,” Justice Pant observed, saying the court does not want to act in haste.

The police informed the court that 12 people were arrested and 25 students identified as beneficiaries of the alleged racket. It said that students from at least 10 States were involved.

The court, however, sought information on the whereabouts of the alleged kingpin, Roop Singh Dangi, and why he had not been arrested yet.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for a student, said it had become almost “impossible to identify beneficiaries of the widespread offence” and hence re-conduct of the test was necessary to maintain its integrity.

“Besides the legal issues, the decision of not holding the examination will cause heartburn among deserving students. I know the dilemma before this court,” Mr. Bhushan said.

“We cannot allow you [police] more than one week to identify the beneficiaries as there is a serious time crunch,” the Bench said, adding that the “sanctity” of the examination has to be maintained.

Large-scale irregularities, including leakage of answer keys for this year’s AIPMT exam, came to light on exam day, with investigators informing the apex court that the answer keys were transmitted through 75 mobile phones in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Haryana.