SSC CGL 2017: Supreme Court seeks centre’s view on scrapping of examination
Earlier the Court had stayed the declaration of the result of SSC CGL 2017, which has been under the scanner due to alleged paper leak.
The Supreme Court today suggested that the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) Combined Graduation Level (CGL) Exam 2017 be scrapped and the whole process should be conducted afresh. The Court has sought Centre’s view on the same and asked the Centre to respond to the suggestion. The next hearing on the case will be on November 13th.
Indian Express reports that the court observed that it is impossible to identify and catch hold of all the candidates who might have benefited from the SSC CGL 2017 paper leak. The Bench said, “Sometimes a hard decision has to be taken to send a message to those involved that these kind of activities would not benefit and every thing can be washed off.”
Earlier, the court had stayed the proceedings of the SSC CGL 2017 and had asked the Commission not to release the result. CBI has been conducting the investigation over the leak but the court observed that there is no mechanism to determine and differentiate the culprit from the innocent.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan who was appearing for petitioner Shantantu Kumar had asked for the cancellation of the examination. Bhushan and advocate Govind Jee said that the court can order the SSC or other government agencies to conduct the examination.
The Court also suggested some other agency to be given the responsibility to conduct the exam. The bench said, “We want such agency to conduct the examinations which cannot be approached.”
Centre’s representative, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, opposed the idea of scrapping the exam. Mehta contested that the problem was with only one paper which was conducted on February 26th and it was technical in nature. He termed the paper leak allegation as “bald and in general”, reports Indian Express.
The Bench questioned the claim of the Solicitor General and said, “It will be better if you go through the status report of CBI. We cannot give the report to the petitioner side but we can give it to the Centre. You file the reply with respect to the CBI’s report.” The Supreme Court will hear on the issue on November 13th.
The month of February and March had witnessed a huge protest from the CGL exam aspirants after a screen shot of leaked CGL Tier-II paper was found circulating in the social media. Aspirants demanded cancellation of the exam and full CBI inquiry into the alleged leak. The government agreed to the demand and ordered a CBI inquiry on March 5th. In May, CBI had registered cases against 17 people related to the leak.
