By Abdul Rashid Agwan

New Delhi: In a strange decision today, the Supreme Court refused the plea of Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) to allow candidates of the CBSE’s All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) wear their traditional attire while appearing for the medical entrance test.

The AIPMT 2015 is now rescheduled tomorrow morning, i.e. 25 July 2015.

The CBSE has declared two days back that its notification was only ‘advisory’ in nature and the candidates wearing clothing other than prescribed one should come somewhat earlier in the exam hall for timely check-in. Hence, the current order of the apex court has made the situation a bit intricate while giving a wrong message on an already resolved issue.

In its undated Public Notice (New), Item #6, the CBSE now specifies, “Dress Code is suggested to avoid delay in entry in the examination centre and to avoid inconvenience to the candidates during frisking by metal detectors. Candidates wearing customary dress or such candidates appearing from the centres in extreme climatic conditions should ensure their presence for frisking by metal detector at least half an hour before the last reporting time, i.e. 09.30 a.m.”

In its earlier notice issued on 9^th July the instruction #7 stipulates, “The candidates will observe the following dress code while coming for appearing in AIPMT Examination: Wear light clothes with half sleeves Shirt/T-Shirt/Kurta not having big buttons, brooch or any badge flower and Trouser/Salwar etc.”

Therefore, the full interpretation of the situation could be that the CBSE has modified its earlier circular while allowing candidates in customary dress, however to reach well in time for proper frisking.

Chief Justice H.L. Dattu while going contrary to the petition of the students’ body said, “If you appear in an examination without a scarf, your faith will not disappear.” He considered it to be a “small issue” and upheld the CBSE notification that prohibited wearing any kind of full dress, which the CBSE has already modified by that time.

It may be noted that in an apparent move to save itself from public embarrassment on the Supreme Court’s scraping of the AIPMT exam held on 3 May due to irregularities, the CBSE announced a controversial notification specifying a strict but unwarranted dress code for the would-be doctors, although with the intention to have proper scrutiny before allowing candidates to enter the examination hall.

How the CBSE works can be judged from the fact that even by today its sitehttp://aipmt.nic.in/aipmt/Welcome.aspx displays:

Date of Examination

AIPMT 2015

03-05-2015 (Sunday) 10 AM (IST).

It is obviously the previous date of the scarped examination and since then a lot of water has already gone down the legal stream. It was the responsibilty of the CBSE to inform the hon’rable court and the petitioners about its new notification so as to save precious time of all concerned.

As per the orders of the apex court the all India test will now be held tomorrow and the rejection of the plea a day before will only confuse the staffs involved in conducting it.

It should be recalled that the court scraped the test results of the AIPMT 2015 on 15 June when it became clear after the 3rd May examination that many tech-savvy students across the country manipulated the exam while taking electronic devices with them inside exam halls and answers were transmitted to them on the device from outside.

Over 6.3 lakh students will have to take fresh test across the country on AIPMT tomorrow morning.