HC seeks govt response on alleged discrepancy in IIT exams

A bench headed by acting Chief Justice Madan B Lokur asked the government, IIT Council and its admission board to explain the alleged irregularities while conducting the Joint Entrance Examination and in granting admissions in IITs.

The court passed the order on a PIL filed by Rajeev Kumar, a computer science professor of IIT Kharagpur, alleging there was no uniformity in conducting exams as cut-off marks keep fluctuating from year to year and some students get admission from the 'back door'.
The professor pleaded the court to direct a probe into these irregularities.

"The current system, which is infected with serious established discrepancies and irregularities, cannot be allowed to continue," advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the professor, said, adding an SIT probe be directed into the irregularities, tampering and fraud in the conduct of the examination.

Kumar alleged in his petition that in 2006, students who had scored 279 marks were rejected while students who secured only 154 were declared qualified.He alleged there is no criteria of fixing cut-off mark and also there is no model answer paper.He said in 2008, the cut-off marks for physics paper was zero while in the previous year it used to be around 55.