Tough task ahead for SC appointed Committee as it readies to evolve measures to ensure foolproof exams

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Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has on May 9 vacated the stay on declaration of results of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) Examinations 2017.

The bench of Justices SA Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer further constituted a six-member expert committee headed by retired Justice GS Singhvi, to decide if the entire examination process was tainted and suggest measures to ensure future examinations foolproof.

The committee will be looking for answers to:

  1. Whether as per the investigation done by the CBI and hence its interim reports/status reports, it is possible to conclude that the entire examination process, per se, is/could have been tainted by leakage? If yes, can those beneficiaries be identified?
  2. Whether other than leakage, any other means of malpractices and unfair means were resorted to by candidates, and whether the said malpractices/unfair means were of such magnitude to taint the entire examination process?
  3. Considering the totality of the facts and examining the entire process, will the Committee suggest scrapping of the entire examination or taking action in case of individuals [if identifiable as per Reference No. (a) above]?
  4. What mandatory technical precautions may be required to be taken for the future examinations with a view to minimize the possibility of any malpractice, use of unfair means or any other illegal method to gain undue/unfair advantage in the examination?
  5. If the answer to Reference No. (a) above is affirmative-namely examination requires to be re-conducted, will the Committee approve conduct of re-examination and all future examinations by the SSC through the newly engaged service provider, or will it prefer a reliable and specially designed government agency, like the National Testing Agency (NTA) for all such examination? The Committee would be entitled to choose an agency other than the NTA, as may be advised.
  6.  Any other recommendation/suggestion which the Committee may consider appropriate for conducting such examination in future after having gone through the entire exercise.

—India Legal Bureau