Nagpur: Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Friday rapped the central government for misleading the court on the issue of alleged mass cheating at Nextech Infotech exam centre during the All India Ayush Post Graduate Entrance Test (AIAPGET) on June 26.
A division bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Zaka Haq warned centre’s counsel Ulhas Aurangabadkar of cancelling the exams if the Union Ministry of Ayush didn’t withdraw its affidavits filed on Thursday.
Categorically denying the students’ allegations, the ministry had stated in its affidavits that no mass cheating took place as their staff was present in classrooms and even CCTV footage showing no untoward incident took place on June 26 was with them.
Petitioners’ counsel Anup Dhore pointed out that the ministry received the CCTV footage on July 28 but it rejected students’ contentions three days prior to it and even prepared a report on that basis. The centre’s counsel then withdrew the affidavit after seeking instructions from its Delhi office.
The judges further directed ministry to submit the hard disk of CCTV footage in the court during next hearing on August 9.
Petitioners Kishor Sonawane and others filed a petition (No 4189/2018) in HC alleging complete mismanagement and use of unfair means during postgraduate entrance on June 26 at Nextech Infotech, where over 400 students appeared.
The aggrieved BAMS students prayed for re-exam contending the centre was ill-prepared to hold the online exam and a majority of students solved the papers by consulting each other in the absence of any monitoring. They earlier lodged complaints with the ministry officials and police but their pleas went unheard. In last hearing on July 13, the court had issued notices to the ministry and Nextech.
AIAPGET was conducted in 20 cities, including Nagpur where there were four centres. In its reply, the ministry informed HC that it wanted to announce the result first and resolve the grievance later. However, HC restrained the respondents from announcing the results.
