The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to halt the Bihar Public Service Commission’s Mains examination scheduled for Friday, dismissing petitions alleging a paper leak during the Preliminary Examinations held on December 13, reported Live Law.

In public service recruitment, the Mains is the second stage of the examination that follows a Preliminary Exam.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan dismissed several petitions challenging the 70th Combined Competitive Exams (Preliminary) conducted by the BPSC.

The petitioners claimed that the question papers had been leaked before the exam, citing WhatsApp messages and video clips. One video allegedly showed answers being announced through loudspeakers at a test centre.

Advocates Anjana Prakash and Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the digital evidence warranted a re-test. However, the bench questioned the authenticity of the digital material.

During the hearing, it was noted that the allegations focused on a single centre, Bapu Pariksha Parisar, where a re-examination had already been conducted.

Manmohan pointed out that even the petitioners’ claims indicated that the leak occurred after the candidates had entered the exam halls. Prakash contested this, stating that there was no certainty regarding that and a re-test was necessary when the process was under scrutiny, Live Law reported.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Bihar and the BPSC, argued that the commission used four sets of question papers with jumbled questions to prevent cheating. He said that only two out of 150 questions were found to be verbatim from mock test papers. Gonsalves countered that several questions matched those provided by coaching centres.

The bench, however, found nothing unusual in such overlaps. “In competitive exams, you find 30% to 40% questions come from the booklet which has thousands of questions,” Manmohan was quoted as having observed.

He added: “Everyone is playing with the insecurities of each other. Please understand, examiner standard is not that high. It’s very unfortunate that no exam is reaching conclusion. We are suspecting everyone of foul play.”

The petitioner, Anand Legal Aid Forum Trust, had first approached the Supreme Court in January seeking cancellation of the exam and the formation of a board to inquire into the conduct of the BPSC. However, the court had directed the petitioner to move the Patna High Court instead.

In March, the High Court dismissed the petitions, saying there was no “definite evidence of malpractice at all centres”. The court had allowed the BPSC to proceed with the Mains examination.

The current plea before the Supreme Court challenged that High Court order.

The BPSC preliminary exams were conducted across 900 centres and taken by nearly 5 lakh candidates. After protests and allegations of a paper leak, the commission held a re-test on January 4 for 12,012 candidates assigned to 22 centres in Patna. Of these, 5,943 candidates appeared for the exam.

The Bihar Police was criticised for using force against candidates who were demanding cancellation of the December 13 exam. The controversy prompted repeated legal challenges, all of which have now been rejected by the courts.