Patna: The Patna High Court on Thursday directed the Bihar government and the state public service commission to file counter affidavits on a bunch of petitions seeking the of the Combined Competitive Exams (CCE) held last month.
Justice Arvind Singh Chandel set January 31 as the next date for the hearing and ruled that the results of the December 13 exam would depend on the final outcome of these petitions.
"Having heard learned senior counsel for the respective parties and considering the facts and circumstances of the case and argument raised by the learned senior counsel, at this stage, I am not inclined to grant any interim relief, as prayed by the petitioners.
"Learned senior counsel for the respondents are directed to file detailed para-wise counter affidavits on or before January 30, 2025. List this petition for further consideration on January 31, 2025. It is made clear that any result of the preliminary examination, conducted by the commission, will be the subject matter of the final outcome of this petition", the order by the judge said.
Several petitions seeking the cancellation of the CCE were recently filed before the Patna High Court. Prior to this, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a writ petition challenging the 70th CCE (preliminary) conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) over an alleged paper leak and had directed the petitioner to approach the Patna High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution.
During the hearing, the petitioner's counsel argued that the BPSC had conducted the CCE on December 13, 2024, in about 912 centres across the state, with around 12,000 candidates present at the Bapu Pariksha Parisar in Patna.
"According to the senior counsel, it was found that the question paper had been leaked, several candidates were not given the question papers, and the papers were also circulated on social media. The learned counsel further submitted that the irregularities were not only confined to the Bapu Pariksha Parisar but also occurred at around 28 different examination centres, as reported by the candidates who appeared at those centres," the order said.
The counsel of the petitioners also alleged that jammers were not working at certain centres, some examination centres were changed at the last moment and the procedure laid down in the SOP was not followed by the BPSC while conducting the exam. However, the advocate general appearing for the state opposed the arguments raised by the lawyers of the petitioners.
The CCE conducted by the BPSC on December 13 has been in the eye of a storm over allegations of question paper leak. Even as the government dismissed the allegation, a fresh test was ordered for more than 12,000 candidates who had appeared in the exam at a centre in Patna.
