AIPMT leak: SC unwilling to order fresh exam

New Delhi, May 26

The Supreme Court today expressed unwillingness to hold the All-India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) afresh following alleged irregularities in the May 3 examination and directed the Haryana Police to expedite its probe to track the beneficiaries.

The apex court was informed by the Haryana Police that the kingpin of the racket, Roop Singh Dangi, was still at large, though the investigation into the case has made progress.

A Vacation Bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and U U Lalit said since the probe was in progress, it would not like to direct the holding of the exam again.

The Bench did not agree with the suggestion that delay in conducting the re-examination would have wide ramification on the admission process.

It said if the beneficiaries of the irregularities are identified in the probe, then there would be no need for conducting the re-examination.

Hearing the submissions, the Bench said, “at this juncture, any direction for re-conducting the exam would create large-scale chaos”. It posted the matter for further hearing on June 3.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh said the entire investigation would take months to complete. He had earlier said the court should keep in mind the fact that six lakh students have taken this examination.

Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for some candidates, submitted that the police should conduct thorough probe as electronic devices like bluetooth and mobile apps like WhatsApp were used.

Haryana Police said the DGP was in contact with his counterparts in other states and all possible steps were being taken to track down the beneficiaries of the alleged irregularities.

The investigating officer submitted that the police has identified the outlet from where 72 sim cards of three different telecom service providers were procured by submitting documents of fake identities.

Large-scale irregularities including leakage of answer keys for this year’s AIMPT exam came to the light, 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.

Five days ago too, the court had said reconducting the examination would be the “last resort”. —  PTI