The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a public interest litigation petition seeking a stay on Wednesday's declaration of results of the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination for 2010-11 and slammed the petitioner NGO, Satya Foundation, for its “publicity stunt”.
Questioning the petitioner's locus standi and intention, the Court queried, “Did you ever bother to take up the cause of those killed in Dantewada (75 CRPF personnel) or those who lost their lives in the recent natural calamities?”
The petition had sought stay of the results on the ground that there were several errors in the instructions attached to the question paper and faulty marking system which it claimed undermined the prospects of over 3,000 students.
A Vacation Bench of Justices G. S. Singhvi and C. K. Prasad dismissing the PIL cautioned that any such stay would affect the career of over four lakh students and might lead to serious consequences including suicides by the aspirants.
The Bench rebuked Chetan Upadhyaya, secretary of the association, and said it would have imposed a huge cost on the petitioner but was refraining from doing so as he was a young man and appeared to have been misguided.
“Some students will even commit suicide. Who will be responsible for it if we stay the results? There are three types of PILs: Public Interest Litigation, Private Interest Litigation and Publicity Interest Litigation. This petition has been filed as a publicity stunt.” Senior counsel R. Venkatramani appeared for the Union Government.
The Delhi High Court had on May 19 dismissed the NGO's plea for staying the results but kept the petition pending with a direction to the IIT's organising committee for JEE to demonstrate before it on June 2 the software adopted for evaluation of answer sheets. It had also sought an affidavit from the committee about corrective measures taken to protect the aspirants from any disadvantage.
Even as the High Court was seized of the matter, the NGO sought to approach the apex court for stay of the results scheduled for Wednesday which evoked the Bench's ire and rebuff. - PTI
Source:- Wednesday, May 26, 2010
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/26/stories/2010052659250400.htm
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