Court stops Tripura engineering admissions

Agartala, July 10 (IANS) The Gauhati High Court's bench here Tuesday stopped the counselling of students for admission to medical and engineering courses on a plea alleging irregularities in the Tripura Joint Entrance Board (TJEB) exam, a lawyer said.

The court directed police to seize all the answer scripts of the TJEB exam held in April for medical, engineering and other technical courses. The result was declared last month.

Justice Subhashish Talapatra of the Agartala bench of the high court also directed a scrutiny of the answer sheets by hand-writing experts following allegations of alteration of answers, the lawyer said.

The court directions came on a plea by 11 engineering and medical courses aspirants, who appeared in the TJEB exam. They alleged modifications in their answer scripts, obtained under the Right to Information Act, he said.

Nearly 2,000 students appeared in the exam which helps students get admission in institutions in Tripura and other states.

The case would next be heard July 17.

The main opposition Congress Tuesday demanded a judicial probe by a sitting high court judge to unearth the wrong doings in the TJEB exam.

The irregularities in the TJEB exam were the biggest scam in the education sector in India, opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath told reporters.

The Congress and its frontal organisations have launched agitations across the Left Front ruled state in support of their demands that include dissolution of the TJEB, dismissal of its chairman besides a judicial probe into the alleged irregularities.