CBSE leak: Delhi HC rejects plea to change date of Class 12 economics exam

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking to change the date of the re-examination of the Class 12 economics paper, which the CBSE has decided to conduct on April 25 after the paper was leaked.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar rejected the plea by NGO Suniye, which sought the date change or making it optional on the grounds that the decided date was close to some entrance examinations including the National Defence Academy and engineering.

Apart from this, the court was hearing two different pleas related to the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 mathematics paper.

While hearing one of the pleas by a group of students seeking re-test of Class 10 mathematics paper, the court asked the CBSE to submit the records relating to the board's decision not to conduct re-examination and listed the matter for April 20.

CBSE leak: 2 bankers nabbed; JEE Mains 2018 paper leak news fake; updates

CBSE paper leak: The Una-based teacher, allegedly involved in leaking Class 12 economics and Class 10 mathematics papers, harboured the ambition of becoming the principal of the school where he taught, and a relative had assured him she would get it done if he helped her get the papers, an official privy to the probe said.

The CBSE Class 10 mathematics question paper was leaked by Rakesh Kumar, an economics teacher at DAV Centenary School in Una in Himachal Pradesh, who was arrested last week along with two other employees of the school - Amit Sharma and Ashok Kumar - in connection with the economics paper leak. The police said today Rakesh Kumar was found to be also involved with the mathematics paper leak before the March 28 examination. Police, however, said there was no monetary transaction involved and Rakesh Kumar did it only to realise his dream.

On Thursday, the police said two men and a woman have been arrested in connection with the leak of the mathematics paper. The three accused were identified as Sheru Ram (35), branch manager of Union Bank Of India, Om Prakash (58), head cashier of the same bank and the 40-year-old woman who had forwarded the handwritten question papers of Class 12 economics and Class 10 mathematics to others via WhatsApp from her cell-phone which later went viral on social media.

CBSE paper leak: 'It happened either in board's custody or at the banks'

The probe into the leak of CBSE class 10 maths and class 12 economics question papers has led the police to believe that the leak happened between the time the papers were in custody of board officials and when those were kept in banks, a senior official said.

With the arrest of three men, including two teachers of a private school in Bawana, police claimed to have busted a module in which the teachers had shared WhatsApp images of the economics paper one-and-a-half hours prior to the exam.

However, when it comes to the trail of handwritten papers that were circulated a day or two before the exam, police are sure that the leak happened either at the board level or the time when they are kept in the banks, the police officer privy to the probe said.

Since it is suspected that the leak might have happened from outer Delhi or Haryana, police have started scanning CCTV footages from the banks in certain areas to see whether there was some suspicious activity around the time the papers were kept there.

The police are also probing the roles of CBSE officials. So far, no CBSE official has been questioned so far, the police officer said.

CBSE class 12 re-exam on April 25, class 10 re-test likely in July; updates

Amid protests over the leak of CBSE question papers, the government on Friday said re-examination of Class 12 economics will be held on April 25, while the decision over the class 10 maths re-exam will be taken in the next 15 days.

Anil Swarup, Secretary School Education in Union Human Resources Development Ministry, said the CBSE Class 10 mathematics question paper was leaked only in Delhi and Haryana as there was no evidence that it was a pan-India affair. "The leak was restricted to Delhi and Haryana, if at all a re-exam will happen, it will happen only in these states in July. A decision will be taken on this in the next 15 days," Swarup told reporters. He said the Class 12 economics re-exam will be held on April 25.

Swarup said the decision to conduct fresh exams won't affect the date of publication of the results, which usually happens in May end. However, there will be no fresh test outside of India as the question papers are different for students appearing for CBSE examinations outside India.