Fate of 6.3 lakh MBBS aspirants hangs in balance after SC reserves order on pleas seeking cancellation of AIPMT

New Delhi: The fate of 6.3 lakh students hangs in balance as the Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on the stay order on declaration of All India Pre-Medical Test results. The results of the exam that was held on May 3, were to be declared on June 5 but was stayed after allegations that nearly 700 students received answer keys through mobile phones during the exam. The verdict will be pronounced on Monday.

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 police to identify as many candidates as possible who had been benefited from the alleged leak.

The vacation bench of the apex court had said that it would decide whether to re-conduct the examination after receiving the status report from the police.

The counsel for Haryana Police had told the court that so far 12 persons have been arrested in the case and 25 students have 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.

Large-scale irregularities including leakage of answer keys for the AIMPT exam 2015 came to the light on the exam day, 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.

The court had issued notices to the Centre, CBSE, Medical Council of India and Haryana on the pleas seeking re-conduct of the AIPMT on grounds of alleged large-scale irregularities.

One of the petitions has claimed that the investigation carried out by the SIT has revealed that the accused gang operated in different states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.