Supreme Court cancels 2015 AIPMT results, tells CBSE to hold fresh exams in four weeks

The Supreme Court on Monday scrapped the All India Pre-Medical Entrance Test (AIPMT) for 2015 and directed Central Board of Secondary Education  (CBSE) to hold fresh exams in four weeks. The CBSE conducts AIPMT for admission to MBBS course in medical colleges across India. Over 6.3 lakh students will have to take fresh test as a vacation bench of Justice R K Agrawal and Justice Amitava Roy directed the institutions involved in conduct of the examination to render assistance to CBSE in this endeavour within the stipulated period decided by it. [caption id=“attachment_2296078” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] Petitions are allowed. CBSE to hold AIPMT 2015 exam within four weeks,” the bench said in its verdict. The court had reserved its order on 12 June on petitions seeking re-conduct of AIPMT 2015 for alleged large-scale irregularities in the exam which was held on 3 May, saying the examination stands vitiated even if one student is being benefited illegally. It had said that CBSE could not be held guilty as such but taking into consideration the past incidents, “CBSE ought to have been cognisant of these things”. The apex court had reserved its verdict on petitions seeking re-conduct of All India Pre-Medical Test 2015 for alleged large-scale irregularities in the examination held on 3 May. The results, which were supposed to be announced on 5 June, were stayed as almost 700 students received answers via their mobile phones, an IBNLive report said. A vacation bench had said that it will shortly pronounce judgement and asked the CBSE not to declare the AIPMT results till then. During the hearing, the bench said, “The examination stands vitiated even if one student is being benefited illegally. We are not holding CBSE guilty as such. Taking into consideration the past such incidents, CBSE ought to have been cognisant of these things. It had been happening for last two-three years.” Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for CBSE, opposed the contentions seeking cancellation of the test, saying, “6.3 lakh students cannot be made to take the exam afresh when only 44 students have been found involved in taking benefits through unfair means.” On 8 June, the apex court had extended till Friday the stay on declaration of results of the test. Earlier, the vacation bench had asked Haryana Police to file a fresh report indicating the number of beneficiaries of the alleged irregularities in the pre-medical examination. It had also asked the police to identify as many candidates as possible who had been benefited from the alleged leak. “We are fully aware of all this. The bigger issue is that the sanctity of the examination is under suspicion. We want to be doubly sure that there is no alternative but to order re-conduct of the examination,” the court had said, adding that it did want to take a decision “in haste”, According to IBNLive report, the Haryana police had informed the counsel that 12 had been arrested and 25 students had been identified as beneficiaries of the alleged racket One of the police officers had told the bench that there are two students among the arrested persons and students of at least ten states were involved in it. The police, however, had expressed its inability in getting the exact details of beneficiaries on the ground that SIM cards, used in passing on question papers and the answer keys, were procured by using fake and forged ID cards, a Times of India report said. (With PTI inputs)