High Court rules out Punjab PMET re-exam

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 1

Just about four months after 15,000 students appeared in Punjab pre-medical test for nearly 1,000 MBBS seats, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday ruled out re-examination.

(Read: Candidates show mistakes in PMET question papers to HC)

(Read: Petition to cancel PMET: Hearing put off till June 19)

Directing Baba Farid University of Health Sciences to revise the PMET-2015 result following cancellation of three questions and court observations on another, Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain also directed the varsity to start the admission process forthwith.

At the same time, the High Court also directed the varsity to allow the candidates appearing in the PMET examination to carry question booklet after the test is over in future.

Justice Jain also made it clear that the answer keys would be published on the varsity website; “and the candidates shall be allowed to have an access to their OMR sheets as per the pattern of the CBSE, which is being practised in the AIPMT.”

In the petition against the State of Punjab and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Ritika of Patiala and other petitioners had earlier sought directions to upload the answer keys and OMR sheet of the candidates on the varsity website.

In their petition through senior advocate Girish Agnihotri, the petitioners had added that they appeared in the PMT. But the test was held in an unfair and arbitrary manner, they said.

As such, it was required to be cancelled before directing the varsity to conduct the test afresh. In alternative, directions should be issued to the respondents to get the test conducted through an independent agency or institution.

The petitioners added the varsity tried to conduct the examination for admission to MBBS seats in Punjab in a clandestine manner to hide its incompetency. No less than 200 objective multiple choice questions were required to be solved 180 minutes. The examination was conducted at a single centre —Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University and around 15,500 students appeared for the examination.

But there were glaring mistakes and patent errors in the question paper. Several questions were not having correct options. Some questions were repeated, besides queries with more than one correct option. Some other questions made no sense at all as the numerical values given in the question paper were not possible.