Mohammad Rafiq, J. - (1.) ALL these writ petitions have been preferred by students desirous of seeking admission to MBBS course in different medical colleges of the State of Rajasthan. All the petitioners appeared in the Rajasthan Pre Medical Test -2014 (for short, 'the RPMT') conducted by respondent Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (for short, 'the respondent -University') in six slots from 28th to 30th of May, 2014. While one set of writ petitioners, who could not qualify the RPMT, have approached this court with the prayer that the aforesaid examination held by the respondent -University be declared illegal and respondents be directed to hold fresh examination, another set of writ petitioners, who have been declared successful, have approached this court seeking a direction to the respondents to adhere to the time schedule for admission as originally notified and refrain from cancelling the whole examination, and if necessary compensate the candidates for questions that were deleted or were having wrong answers.
(2.) DURING pendency of these writ petitions, however, some of the affected candidates approached the State Government alleging various irregularities in the examination. The State Government, by its order dated 10.06.2014, constituted a Committee of experts to look into the grievance of such students. The Committee submitted its report to the Government on 15.06.2014. The Government, on consideration of aforesaid report and various other factors, finally, by its order dated 17.06.2014, decided to hold fresh examination. In view, however, of the schedule of time laid down by the Supreme Court in its order dated 19.05.2014 to complete the first round of counselling by 25.06.2014, and fixing 03.07.2014 as the last date for the students to join the allotted colleges, the Government filed an Interlocutory Application No. 10/2014 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 737/2013 -Lipika Gupta and Another Vs. Union of India and Others, inter -alia with the prayer that the order dated 19.05.2014 be modified permitting the State Government and the respondent -University to conduct the RPMT for the academic Session 2014 -15 as per the revised time schedule proposed in Para 25 of that application so as to complete the entire exercise of admission up to 30th September, 2014, as originally fixed in that order. When the aforesaid Interlocutory Application came up for hearing on 23.06.2014, the Supreme Court was informed about the pendency of these writ petitions before this Court. Their Lordships were pleased to pass the following order: - This application has been moved by the State of Rajasthan as well as the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences for partial modification of the order passed on 19th May, 2014 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 737 of 2013 and other connected Writ Petitions. Briefly stated, by that Order, this Court has set down a schedule for commencement and completion of Examination as well as Counselling. It has been found that out of 1200 questions, 86 questions were found to be incorrect in the On -line Examination conducted for the present Academic Year. The applicants contend that there is widespread unrest amongst the candidates since they feel that in spite of moderation by the equipercentile method, the results are not fair to all students. We are also informed that there are 33 Writ Petitions pending before the High Court of Rajasthan and the hearing is scheduled for tomorrow i.e. 24th June, 2014. The difficulty which is anticipated on behalf of the applicants is that the High Court may come to the opinion that it is faced with a fate accompli, inasmuch as the counselling dates already ordained by this Court would deter the High Court from passing any order on the Writ Petitions as that would tantamount to interfering with or modifying the Schedule laid down by this Court. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties, we think the most expedient and appropriate orders to pass would be to direct the High Court to consider the Writ Petitions undeterred by the Schedule laid down by this Court in the Order dated 19th May, 2014. Keeping in view the urgency in the matter, we request High Court to decide the Writ Petitions on or before 27th June, 2014. Re -notify I.A. No. 10/2014 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 737/2013 along with Writ Petition (Civil) No. 737/2013 on 30th June, 2014, already fixed. Pursuant to decision of the Board of Management of the respondent -University, the Registrar of the respondent -University, by order dated 04.12.2013, constituted a core committee with Dr. P.K. Jain as its Chairman. The core committee in its meeting dated 15.03.2014 decided to hold On -line examination with two sessions every day. It was decided to give equal weightage to each subject of Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology. Result was to be declared on applying equipercentile formula. The approval of the State Government was sought in this behalf. A letter was sent by the Registrar of the respondent -University to the Government on 18.03.2014 to the above effect. The Government, vide letter dated 29.03.2014, conveyed that the respondent -University was competent to take decisions at its own level. The matter was then taken up in the 62nd meeting of the Board of Management on 02.04.2014. In principle approval was granted to the proposal of holding On -line examination in six cities, namely, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Kota, Bikaner and Udaipur in multiple sessions and declare result after applying equipercentile method. It was thereupon that the respondent -University issued/published notification No. 1/14 in all leading newspapers of the State on 09.04.2014 inviting on -line applications from eligible candidates from 10th April, 2014 to 3rd May, 2014 for admission to MBBS course by way of RPMT. Total number of 44833 candidates submitted applications for appearing in the RPMT Examination -2014, however, only 41911 candidates actually appeared in the examination. This was intended to be a common examination for admission to MBBS, BDS, Bachelor in Pharma and Diploma in Pharma.
(3.) THE examination for RPMT, as already noted above, was held in two slots each on 28th, 29th and 30th of May, 2014, thus in total six slots. Examination paper consisted of 200 objective type questions carrying four marks each with 50 questions divided into four subjects -viz. -Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology. The answer keys of the question papers of all six lots were uploaded on the website of the respondent -University on 30.05.2014, and objections of the candidates were invited up to 5.00 pm of the following day i.e. 31.05.2014. Total 103 grievances were received by the grievance committee, comprising of two experts under the Chairmanship of Pro -Vice -Chancellor. On examination thereof, the committee found 60 questions either wrongly framed or having wrong options or wrong translation from English to Hindi. The Grievance Committee decided to award four bonus marks for each wrong answer. Besides, the committee noted that 62 questions were correct but their options in the answer -key were incorrect. Before, however, declaring the result, the respondent -University discussed the matter with the Principal Secretary to the Government in its Department of Medical Education, who advised to again invite objections. The respondent -University again published revised answer -key on 03.06.2014 inviting objections till 12.00 noon on 04.06.2014. This time, the Committee received as many as 374 grievances.;