Nagpur: In a relief to 400 odd students who appeared for All India Ayush Post Graduate Entrance Test (AIAPGET) from Nextech Infotech centre in city, the Union ministry of Ayush on Monday agreed to conduct their reexam within 15 days.
A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Zaka Haq then permitted the another respondent — All India Institute of Ayurveda director — to declare results of other students from all over India, so that those wanting to shift to other disciplines/branches aren’t affected. The bench, however, clarified that the admission process after AIAPGET would not commence till the petitioners’ results are declared.
Earlier, assistant solicitor general Ulhas Aurangabadkar made a statement that the Ayurveda director’s panel had taken a decision to hold reexam at the same centre as per HC’s directives on Thursday. He also requested the court to allow them to declare the AIAPGET results.
According to him, the students who may not have fared well in the examination, may go for some other discipline or course after learning about their results. If the process is delayed further, their choices would be adversely affected, he contended.
While accepting his statement, the judges directed respondents to hold such re-examination at centre in respect of Ayurveda stream within 15 days before disposing of the plea.
Aggrieved students, including Kishor Sonawane and others, through counsel Anup Dhore approached the HC alleging complete mismanagement and use of unfair means during the postgraduate entrance on June 26 at Nextech Infotech, where over 400 students appeared.
Praying for reexam, they argued that the centre was ill-prepared to hold the online entrance and majority of students solved the papers consulting each other in the absence of any monitoring. They earlier lodged complaints with the ministry officials and police, but all their pleas had gone unheard.
After their plea (WP No 4189/2018), HC on July 13, issued notice to the ministry and Nextech while restraining respondents from announcing the results. The AIAPGET was conducted in 20 cities including Nagpur where there was four centres. In its reply, the ministry informed the HC that it wants to announce the result first and resolve the grievance later.
In last hearing, HC observed that the agency conducting AIAPGET was under obligation to furnish CCTV footage of the exam centre. They criticized the ministry for not revealing to them that CCTV footage for entire examination or even for entire hall/centre is unavailable till date. The respondents claimed that hard-disk got corrupt and data was retrieved by sending it to experts in Mumbai on July 11.
Petitioners then pointed out that the ministry received the CCTV footage on July 28 but it rejected students’ contentions about 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.
