CBSE now seeks 3 months to hold pre-med test

Apex court to hear plea today

The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it was impossible to conduct re-examination of the 2015-16 All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT), scrapped due to large-scale irregularities, within four weeks.

A bench of justices R K Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre agreed to hear the application on Friday. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the CBSE, mentioned the matter before the bench and sought an urgent hearing. He said the CBSE would require at least three months for holding the examination again across the country.

On June 15, the SC had given the CBSE four weeks’ time to re-conduct the examination previously held on May 3 across the country. The court had said the examination stood denuded of its sanctity due to irregularities, including passing of answer keys to some candidates.

The court had relied upon the Haryana police investigations stating that 44 beneficiaries of “unprincipled manoeuvres” had so far been identified.

Noting that the matter involved the future generations of doctors of the country who would be in charge of public health, the apex court said their inherent merit to qualify for taking the course can by no means be compromised.

“If such an examination is saved, merit would be a casualty, generating a sense of frustra­tion in genuine students, with aversion to the concept of examination,” the bench had said.