S.J.MUKHOPADHAYA, J. - (1.) THE petitioner has prayed for direction on respondents to delete the endorsement made by respondents in the provisional certificate and Character Certificate and shown pendency of a CBI case against the petitioner.
(2.) THE brief facts of the case is that the petitioner appeared in the Combined Engineering Entrance Examination 1996 and was declared successful. After counseling held on 12th August, 1996, the petitioner having opted for RIT, Jamshedpur (Now known as NIT), was admitted in the said college in the first year engineering course. In the meantime a number of writ petitions being CWJC No. 7666/1996 and others were preferred by one Pramod Kumar Dukania and others before the Patna High Court for cancellation of results of the Combined Engineering Entrance Examination, 1996 on the ground of use of unfair means and manipulation of answer -sheets. It was pleaded that candidates having good academic records though did fairly well were not selected because large scale bungling done at the instance of Mr. Brij Bihari Prasad (since deceased), the then Minister, Department of Science and Technology in connivance with the co -convenor Dr. R.C. Das "Vikal" to advance the cause of about 200 candidates for extraneous considerations. The writ petitions aforesaid were disposed off by learned Single Judge by a common judgment, reported in 1997 (2) BLJ 488 (Pramod Kumar Dukania and Ors. V/s. State of Bihar and Ors). Learned Single Judge held that each of the proven circumstances, as discussed in the said case, leads to an irresistible conclusion that a deep -seated fraud and manipulation were done in the Combined Engineering Entrance Examination, 1996, benefiting the respondents of those cases. The case was referred to CBI, Patna to investigate the matter and to submit report within three months for appropriate direction regarding prosecution of persons, found to have been indulged in such activities.
(3.) THE judgment aforesaid was challenged by some candidates before a Division Bench of Patna High Court in LPA No. 876 of 1997 (Nitin Kumar and others) Letters Patent Appeals. All the LPAs were heard and disposed off by a Division Bench by a common judgment and order dated 22nd May, 1998 with the following observations : - - "In the instant case only after the order passed by the learned Writ Court, the crime is being investigated by the CBI and, therefore, it cannot be said that Sec. 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act creates a legal impediment. Thus investigation is not suffering from legal infirmity. We have already observed in the preceding paragraphs that in pursuance of the direction of the learned Writ Court, though investigation by the CBI is in progress but the admissions of the examinees have been cancelled and yet the investigation has not culminated by filing a charge -sheet against the examinees, Minister or other officials said to have been involved in this matter. Therefore, ultimately if in investigation nothing is found against the examinees so as to make them liable for prosecution, in our opinion, in that event, possibility of considerable irreparable harm to them cannot be set back. Hence, in order to prevent that irreparable harm, in our view, it will be desirable in the interest of justice, enquiry and good conscience that till the truth is investigated and finally not revealed by the CBI by submitting charge -sheet against the concerned persons, the admission of the examinees, so cancelled is liable to be remedied by restoring the status quo ante as it was on 20.8.1996 by the interim order passed by the Writ Court on that day meaning thereby that the admission of the concerned students in the respective colleges shall be subject to the presentation of charge -sheet and taking of cognizance by the Court concerned by framing charges against them. Thus, as a result thereof, the admission of the concerned examinees is relegated to the stage of the interim order dated 20.8.1996 passed by the writ Court and shall continue till the charge -sheet is submitted against them and pursuant to the charge -sheet, charges are framed by the Court concerned against them. However, it is made clear that during the course of investigation, the concerned examinees and all other concerned persons shall co -operate with the investigation and shall make themselves available to the Investigating agency for interrogation etc, if and when required by them. With the above directions, these appeals are finally disposed off. However, there shall be no order as to costs." ;