New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday
refused to direct the CBSE to conduct a fresh All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), which was mired in controversy after its question papers were leaked.
A vacation bench of justices G S Singhvi and C K
Prasad dismissed the petition filed by some students who
approached the apex court after they couldn`t appear for the
test which was rescheduled after leakage of questions.
Refusing to interfere in the examination process, the
court observed that around 10 lakh students have appeared for
the examination and they would suffer because of fresh
examination.
The students approached the apex court challenging a
Delhi High Court order which on May 18 had refused to stay the
declaration of AIEEE results.
The CBSE had submitted before the high court that,
"decision taken by an examination conducting body on basis of
material and information available to it is beyond the scope
of judicial review as the said body is the best judge of the
situation and the manner of dealing with the same."
"If the board had decided to cancel the examination
for all 97 per cent candidates (who appeared for exam on May
1), this would have caused inconvenience and hardships to vast
majority of students," CBSE had said.
A group of AIEEE candidates, who had appeared for the
exam after a delay of three hours due to question paper leak
on May 1, had sought cancellation of both the examinations
(1st and 2nd phase) on the ground that the students were
compelled to give the exam under adverse conditions and
circumstances, which is violative of fundamental rights.
On May 1, the examination, conducted by CBSE, was
delayed by three hours following a paper leak. The exam was
scheduled at 9.30 AM but was rescheduled to begin at 12 noon
on the same day.
The next day the government came with a notification
that the AIEEE exam will be re-conducted on May 11, only for
candidates who could not appear for the exam on May 1.
The question paper was reportedly being sold in the
open market in Lucknow and a man was arrested by Uttar Pradesh
Special Task Force.
PTI
