Supreme Court on Monday, April 1st, 2019, allowed Staff Selection Commission to declare the Combined Graduate Level 2017 re-examination result, reports NDTV. Earlier in August 2018, SC had asked SSC to not release the CGL and CHSL 2017 result after allegations of paper leak had surfaced for the Tier-II CGL examination. SC had questioned whether SSC can ensure that all the people who had benefited from leak can been identified.
In February 2018, SSC CGL Tier-II examination papers had been leaked in social media and candidates had protested for many day outside the SSC office in New Delhi. SSC had conducted a re-examination of the paper in the month of March and later had also suggested a CBI inquiry on the leak which the centre had approved.
CBI in its reports said that all the culprits around the case had been identified and had suggested that there is no need for re-examination. As reported earlier, the court in October 2018 had 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.”
NDTV further adds that on Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who was appearing for Centre said that re-examination for all the papers was unnecessary as the leak was “extremely localised” and all the culprits have been identified and necessary action has been taken. The paper which was leaked has been identified and a re-examination was taken on March 9, which was not tainted.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan along with advocated Govind Jee who were appearing for petitioner Shantantu Kumar argued in favour of cancellation of the examination. They asked the court can order the SSC or other government agencies to conduct the examination.
Earlier, the apex court had suggested that a committee be formed to look into the process of examination and suggest reforms to avoid further leaks in the future. The court on Monday ruled out vacating the stay on the entire exam but result for the re-examination can be declared.
The court in October had also suggested suggested some other agency like National Testing 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.”
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.
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