New Delhi, Jun 3: Announcement of results of the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), which was marred by paper leak, was put off till June 10 by the Supreme Court Wednesday, prolonging the anxiety of over 6lakh students as whether the exam would be held afresh.
The apex court may take a call on June 10 on reconducting the test, as it granted one more week to Haryana police to file a fresh report indicating the number of beneficiaries of the alleged irregularities in the pre-medical examination. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was to declare the results of the AIPMT June 5.
Taking note of pleas seeking re-conduct of the May 3 examination, a vacation bench of justices Prafulla C Pant and Amitava Roy said it would decide whether to re-conduct the examination after receiving a status report from the police June 10. “We are fully aware of all this (declaration of results).
The bigger issue is that the sanctity of the examination is under suspicion. We want to be doubly sure that there is no alternative but to order re-conduct of the examination,” it said, adding that it does want to take a decision “in haste”.
“We have to be doubly sure. We do not want to be criticised for any action,” it said and asked the police to “hunt” for other beneficiaries. “We are expecting the probe to conclude,” the bench said,
adding that this was “important” to decide the future course of action. Large-scale irregularities including leakage of answer keys for the exam came to the light May 3, with the investigators informing the court that the answer keys of 123 questions were transmitted through 75 mobile phones in states
like Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Haryana.
At the outset, counsel for Haryana police told the court that so far 12 persons have been arrested and 25 students identified as beneficiaries of the alleged racket. A police officers told the bench that there were two students among those arrested and students of at least ten states were allegedly involved in it. The police, however, expressed inability in getting the details of beneficiaries on the ground that SIM cards, used in passing on question papers and the answer keys, were procured
by using fake and forged ID cards.
Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, said it has become almost “impossible to identify beneficiaries of the wide-spread offence” and hence, re-conduct of the test was necessary to maintain its integrity.
