NewDelhi/Nagpur: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its order on pleas seeking cancellation of All India Pre-Medical Entrance Test (AIPMT) over alleged large-scale irregularities and also extended the stay on declaration of the results till pronouncement of the verdict.
The apex court had on June 8 extended the stay on the declaration of results of AIPMT till June 12 while hearing pleas seeking re-conduct of the test in the May 3 examination.
A vacation bench of justice RK Agrawal and justice Amitava Roy had granted the time after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) sought listing of the matter for Friday.
The CBSE was scheduled to declare the AIPMT results on June 5, but the declaration was postponed after the apex court on June 3 directed the board to not declare the results till June 10 in the light of allegations of irregularities.
The SC also gave Haryana police a week to find the real beneficiaries of the illegal practices followed in the exam. The court wants these students to be identified so they can be eliminated when the results are declared.
Over 6 lakh students had appeared for the AIPMT exam this year.
Large-scale irregularities, including leakage of answer keys, had come to the light earlier, 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.
A number of medical colleges which accept the AIPMT score, students who have appeared for the examination this year and coaching institutes, have expressed concern over the delay in the publication of the results
An administrative officer at the Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital said, “15% of our seats come from All India examination and the remaining 85% from the IP University. The university is ready with its results and their counselling should start anytime now, but the problem is we can’t start the session till we get the remaining 15% candidates.”
The official did not wish to give his name as he isn’t authorised to speak to the media.
“Normally 15 days of delay won’t make much of a difference but the problem will be if it’s stretched beyond that. There is a particular number of study hours assigned per subject that we have to take and in cases of delays we have to compensate by scheduling lots of extra classes. Last year also the session got delayed till September so we had to fix extra classes in the evening,” the official added.
