New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to scrap the 2017 Staff Selection Commission (SSC) combined graduate level examination, which came under cloud due to allegations of malpractice and leaking of the paper.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan contended before a Bench, headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, that according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report there were several malpractice, including the paper leak.
Earlier, the the top court had set up a seven-member panel to recommend steps to insulate examinations for jobs and educational institutions from the malpractice.
The panel said the SSC examination process had many loopholes. The panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice G.S. Singhvi, included Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, renowned computer scientist Vijay Bhatkar, famous mathematician R.L. Karandikar, Sanjay Bhardwaj and a representative each from the Centre and the CBI.
Bhushan’s client had sought probe into the alleged paper leak and scrapping of the examination. He contended that the custodian of the examination paper had been charge-sheeted for leaking the paper for illegal gratification.
The court observed that the criminal court will deal with matter. “Your argument is to cancel the examination. We are reluctant to do so,” the court told Bhushan.
Additional Solicitor General A.N.S. Nadkarni, representing the Centre, said the CBI conducted the inquiry into the matter. The government would accept the committee’s recommendations, Nadkarni said.
Bhushan said the CBI had gone on record that it was not possible to identify every candidate, who would had benefited from the malpractice that included remote access for computers used for the online examination.
The apex court in May 2019 had allowed declaration of results of SSC CGLE-2017 by vacating its stay. However, it said results would be subjected to final outcome of the case.
The SSC combined graduate level examination has a four-tier system. While the tier I and II are computer-based, tier III and IV comprises descriptive paper and a computer proficiency test.
Thousands of students appear in the SSC examination each year.
