Check genuineness of all MBBS students admitted this year: HC
Court orders testing agency to provide fingerprints of all students to the police
 
17/10/2019 , Mohamed Imranullah S., CHENNAI

The Madras High Court has embarked on a major exercise of cleansing medical college admissions of issues like impersonation in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), students from private coaching centres getting an upper hand over poor students in admissions, and first-time NEET candidates being elbowed out of competition by those who make repeated attempts.

Justices N. Kirubakaran and P. Velmurugan on Wednesday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET, to share with the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) the thumb impressions of all 4,250 candidates who got admission in government and private medical institutions in the State this year so that it could be verified whether all of them were genuine candidates. Since the CB-CID had so far collected concrete material to prove that six students had got admitted to the MBBS course this year through impersonation in NEET, and was suspecting the involvement of 13 more, the judges felt it will be prudent to check the genuineness of all 4,250 students who had got admitted in government and private medical colleges, apart from deemed universities, this year.

CBI as respondent

After Additional Advocate General P.H. Arvindh Pandian said that almost all the impersonators for the six students had appeared for the test in other States, and some private coaching centres may have played a crucial role in the illegality, the judges suo motu included the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) too as a respondent to a case before them, for a central agency will be in a better position to probe a pan-India crime. “It is seen from media reports that during Income Tax raids, huge unaccounted money has been seized from coaching centres. In Karnataka also, there seems to be a fraud committed for getting admission in medical colleges... When around 14 lakh students compete for 38,000 medical seats available in the country, there is bound to be heavy competition and in that process, this kind of fraud takes place, denying medical seats to deserving candidates,” the judges lamented.

Stressing the need for implementing a foolproof system, like a combination of a fingerprint checking mechanism and facial recognition technology, to prevent impersonation in NEET, the judges said all stakeholders, including the Centre, State governments and the Medical Council of India, should constitute a committee to evolve a new method which won’t allow any kind of illegality. The judges ordered that the media should refrain from disclosing the identity of young students. It was the bounden duty of the government to provide counselling to the students who had been arrested and released on bail so that they do not end up taking any extreme step, they observed.

Authoring the interim order, the senior judge in the Bench directed the Central and State governments to submit by October 24 the details of students who had cleared NEET in the first attempt and those who had cleared it after multiple attempts. The judges wanted to know how many had cleared NEET by attending private coaching centres and how many had done so without assistance from such centres. The order was passed while the court was hearing a writ appeal that had complained of large-scale irregularities in filling NRI quota seats in private medical colleges.

TNOU convocation
 
17/10/2019 , Special Correspondent

A student of the Tamil Nadu Open University’s Bachelor of Computer Application department will be presented the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) award this year. The recipient, E. Priya, stood first in the degree programme.

She will receive the award at the university’s 12th convocation to be held on Friday.

At the event, 140 candidates who secured ranks will receive gold medals and 219 students who had secured second and third ranks at the university level will receive certificates. A total of 8,935 candidates are graduating this year, said registrar in-charge P. Thyagarajan.

Seven M.Phil degrees, 2,505 postgraduate degrees, 4,702 undergraduate degrees, 101 PG diplomas, 1,547 vocational diplomas and 73 diplomas will be distributed.

Answer scripts can be obtained by students under RTI, says HC
Petition filed by law university dismissed; told to dispose of applications

17/10/2019 , Legal Correspondent, CHENNAI 

Observing that evaluated answer scripts would fall squarely under the definition of the term “information” under the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005, the Madras High Court held that universities were bound to provide copies of such answer scripts to the examinees concerned.

Justice S.M. Subramaniam dismissed a writ petition filed by Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, challenging an order passed by the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission on December 17, and directed it to dispose of all RTI applications made for the provision of copies of answer scripts.

The judge held that students should be given the option of seeking copies of their answer scripts either under the university rules, which might require them to pay a higher fee, or under the RTI Act, which enables applicants to obtain information from public institutions on payment of a nominal fee.

“The very object of the Right to Information Act, 2005, stipulates that democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information, which are vital to its functioning, and also to contain corruption and to hold governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. Accountability in public administration is of paramount importance,” the judge observed.

‘A record’

He recalled that even the Supreme Court in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) versus Aditya Bandhopadhyay (2011) had observed that an unevaluated answer script should be considered as a document or record and that an evaluated answer script must be construed as information.

“Examining bodies (universities, examination boards, CBSE, etc.) are neither intelligence nor security organisations and therefore the exemption under Section 24 of the Act will not apply to them. The disclosure of information with reference to answer books does not also involve infringement of any copyright and therefore Section 9 will not apply,” the judgment read.

“Resultantly, unless the examining bodies are able to demonstrate that the evaluated answer books fall under any of the categories of exempted information enumerated in clauses (a) to (j) of Section 8(1), they will be bound to provide access to information, and any applicant can either inspect the document/record, take notes or obtain extracts of certified copies,” the judgement read. © 2017 All Rights Re

NTA to hold common test for 15 central univs

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:17.10.2019

The national testing agency (NTA) will conduct a common admission test for 15 of the central universities of the country from the 2020-21 academic session. These will include universities of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka among others.

The human resource development ministry is likely to give a nod to the proposal on Thursday. NTA is in talks with other central universities as well to join the common test. This is the first time NTA has been entrusted with the task of conducting the Central University common entrance test (CUCET) which till last year was conducted by the University of Rajasthan. “There is addition to the list of the universities for the academic session 2020-21 making it 15. And more are likely to join as NTA is in touch with other new universities like the Central University of Manipur,” said a source in MHRD.

The common entrance test for the 15 central universities for 2020-21 academic session will be conducted in May, 2020. The test would be conducted for around 50 undergraduate courses, over 170 post-graduate and over 100 MPhil and PhD programmes.

NTA conducted a computer-based entrance test for Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University this year for a limited number of courses.

“NTA has the capacity and capability as the final aim is to make it a premium testing agency. It has already delivered glitch-free, transparent and secure testing for JEE (Main), NEET, UGC-NET, DU and JNU entrance tests,” said a senior HRD official.

These will include universities of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka among others

Ex-VC of pvt univ murdered in B’luru

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:17.10.2019

A 53-year-old former vice-chancellor of a private university was hacked to death late on Tuesday night in a playground about 100ft from his R T Nagar residence and 50 metres from the jurisdictional police station.

D Ayyappa Dore, 53, former V-C of Alliance University and RTI activist, was found in a pool of blood around 5.30am on Wednesday when his wife Pavana Dibbur, also a former VC of the university, started searching for him. She alerted a passing police patrol vehicle that her husband was missing and his mobile phone was ringing.

In no time, police personnel found Dore’s body at the HMT Ground. The body bore half-a-dozen hack marks, and police suspected the killers may have been armed with machetes. Dore is survived by wife, two daughters and an eight-year-old son.

Nurturing political ambitions, Dore had floated Jana Samanyara Party in 2017 and unsuccessfully entered Muddebihal fray in Vijayapura district in the 2018 elections.

Bengaluru City police commissioner Bhaskar Rao announced three special teams to nab the assailants.

Full report on www.toi.in 

Shop sells biryani for 5paise, turns crowd fav

Padmini.Sivarajah@timesgroup.com

Madurai:17.10.2019

A biryani shop in Dindigul distributed packs of biryani for five paise on Wednesday to mark World Food Day (October 16), in a move to create awareness on the importance of preserving and maintaining old coins.

Sheik Mujibur Rahman, owner of the shop, said his visit to the Keeladi archaeological excavation site in Sivaganga district and the recent findings and reports about the site had enthralled him. “I realized how important it was to keep things that we used carefully for future generations to know about us. I decided to find out how many people had the five paise coins which are no longer in use,” he said.

He put up a signboard that the biryani, sold for ₹90 usually, will be sold for five paise. Hundreds of people thronged the shop with five paise coins in their hands on Wednesday.

Thirupathi, a customer said it was good that the shop had put out the sign two days ago as it gave them time to search for the five paise coin.

“My son rarely gets an opportunity to have biryani from the shop, so I found the five paise coin in a small tin box that my grandmother kept and came to the shop by 9.30am,” said Lakshmi, who got a pack. 



FIGHTING FOR SPACE

Exam answer sheet is information under RTI: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:17.10.2019

An evaluated answer sheet is information as defined under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and so a university cannot deny access to students, more so because the information does not fall under the exempted category for national security or copyright infringement, the Madras high court held on Wednesday.

Dismissing a plea moved by the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University challenging the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission’s order allowing students to get copies of answer scripts through RTI, Justice S M Subramaniam directed the university to supply them to students who wanted them.

The judge also rejected the university’s contention that it is governed by its own rules and said that the RTI Act overrides university statute.

The issue pertains to an order passed by the information commission dated December 17, 2018, directing the university to supply copies of answer scripts sought under the RTI Act by a student, Pavan Kumar Gandhi. Challenging the order, the university submitted that it is ready and willing to furnish copies of answer scripts on payment of charges prescribed under university rules.

Rejecting the contention of the university, the judge citied a series of Supreme Court orders and said, when an answer-book is evaluated by an examiner appointed by the examining body, the evaluated answer-book becomes a record containing the ‘opinion’ of the examiner. Therefore, the evaluated answerbook is also `information’ under the RTI Act.

Thus, there is no option for the university but to supply the evaluated answer scripts to Gandhi under the RTI Act, the court said.

Noting that the university cannot demand that students obtain copies of the script only by paying a prescribed fee, Justice Subramaniam relied on a apex court order which said that “the existence of two avenues is not mutually exclusive and it is up to the candidate to choose either of the routes. Thus, if a candidate seeks information under the provisions of the RTI, then payment has to be sought under the RTI Rules only”.

However, if the information is sought under the guidelines of the university, then the institution is at liberty to charge the candidates as per its guidelines, it added.

Under the law university rules, a student has to pay ₹500 to the controller of examinations to obtain copy of an answer sheet. However, as per the RTI rules, the applicant has to pay only ₹10 to get a copy.

The judge rejected the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University contention that it is governed by its own rules and said that the RTI Act overrides university statute