Petition in Supreme Court seeks stay on re-conduct of AIEEE

New Delhi, May 9: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the government's decision to re-conduct the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) for candidates who could not appear in the May 1 test due to question paper leak.

The petition, filed by former Professor AP Sinha of NIT Jamshedpur, has appealed against a Delhi high court order which issued notices to the government but refused to stay its decision to re-conduct the AIEEE on May 11.

"As per the scheme of the examination, two separate examinations are not envisaged at all for a single merit list based on performances. Deviations leave the process illegal, unjust, unconstitutional, arbitrary and clearly against fundamental rights of equality of all the candidates," the petition said.

The main plea before the high court was for the cancellation of the examination held on May 1 and conducting it afresh in near future providing equal opportunity to each and every candidate.

The petitioner had sought stay on the government's notification dated May 2 for holding the AIEEE on May 11 for the candidates who could not take it on May 1 due to confusion arising out of the leakage of the question paper.

As the high court did not stay the rescheduled exam, the petitioner approached the apex court contending that "high court's decision results into effectively disallowing the main petition rendering the same as infrastructural".

The petitioner contended that the government is "conducting two AIEEE 2011 exams under two very different conditions -- one in adverse and disadvantageous condition, marked by chaos in which 97 percent of the total candidates appeared, while only 3 percent candidates are allowed to appear on May 11 in an undue advantageous positions".

"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," the petition said.

The petitioner has made the ministry of human resource development, the secretary of the AIEEE unit of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and its Director (Special Exams) as respondents.

"The respondents remained silent and insensitive and are trying to cover up all the irregularities committed by proposing to hold an unprecedented second exam only for selective candidates and others on undisclosed and vague administrative grounds," states the petitioner.

He claims that "though the news of question paper leaks and confirmation thereof by the top concerned officials came at 7.30am on May 1 itself which was much before the scheduled starting time for the AIEEE 2011, the exam was conducted defying all the established norms and practice of law and legality."

On May 1, the examination was delayed by CBSE by three hours following the paper leak. It was scheduled at 9.30am but was rescheduled to begin at 12 noon on the same day.

The question paper was reportedly being sold in the open market in Lucknow. A man was arrested by the special task force of the Uttar Pradesh police for his alleged role in the leakage.

PTI