SC dismisses AIEEE re-examination plea, CBSE to declare result

New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court Thursday
cleared the decks for declaration of results of All India
Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) by turning down a
plea for reconduct of the test which was mired in controversy
after a question paper was leaked.
A vacation bench of justices G S Singhvi and C K
Prasad dismissed the petition filed by some students and a
retired professor of NIT Jamshedpur, A P Sinha, seeking its
direction to the government for reconduct of the test.
Refusing to scrap the test conducted by the CBSE in
two resheduled phases after the paper was leaked, the court
allowed the board to declare the results which are expected to
come out within a week.
The petitioner submitted that many students could not
appear in the test which was rescheduled and a single merit
list could not be made on the basis of two seperate
examinations.
"Two separate examinations are not envisaged at all
for a single merit list based on performance. Deviations leave
the process illegal, unjust, unconstitutional, arbitrary and
clearly against fundamental rights of equality of all the
candidates," the petitioners said.
The court, however, was not impressed by the argument
and said that around 10 lakh students had appeared for the
test and they would suffer because of fresh examination.
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 phases) on the ground that the students were
compelled to give the exams under adverse conditions and
circumstances, which were violative of fundamental rights.
The petitioners contended that the government was
"conducting two AIEEE 2011 exams under two very different
conditions -- one in adverse and disadvantageous condition,
marked by chaos in which 97 per cent of the total candidates
appeared, while (the other in which) only 3 per cent
candidates were allowed to appear on May 11 in an undue
advantageous position.
"This will certainly lead to conditions in which it can
never produce a just, fair, bonafide and legally sustainable
merit list of rankings and, thereby, may open a floodgate of
future litigations and challenges," they said.
On May 1, the examination was delayed by three hours
following the paper leak. The exam was scheduled at 9.30 AM
but was rescheduled to begin at 12 noon the same day.
The next day the government came out 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 leaked question paper was reportedly being sold in
in Lucknow and a man was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Special
Task Force.