Re-conduct of AIPMT test is 'last resort': SC

Reconducting the All India Pre- Medical Test examination, which saw large scale irregularities like leakage of answer keys, would be the "last resort", the Supreme Court said today and asked Haryana police to track down the beneficiaries.
"We are sitting with an open mind. We will decide it... So far as conducting re-examination is concerned, it is the last resort only," a vacation bench of Justices A K Sikri and U U Lalit said without ruling out re-conduct of AIPMT as demanded by some parents.
During the hearing, it also observed "why should six lakh people be asked to take up the examination all over again and we should try to find out the number of beneficiaries."

The court asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Haryana police to trace out the actual numbers of beneficiaries of alleged irregularities in the test so that "wheat can be separated from chaff".
It also directed the law enforcement agencies of other states, mobile service providing companies to assist Haryana police in the investigation and posted the matters for May 26.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), said "let us not magnify the problem and we should focus on the real issue."

The ASG further said the court should keep in mind the fact that six lakh students have taken this examination.

To this, the bench said "We are conscious of all this."
Meanwhile, Haryana police also filed the status report giving details of the probe conducted so far and said six persons have been arrested till date.
One of the officers told the court that around 1100 hours of May 3 when the tests were being conducted, the police got the information that some doctors were getting the question papers leaked.
Later, the answer keys of 123 questions were transmitted through 75 mobile phones in different states, he said, adding that calls were made to states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Haryana.