Chennai: Madras high court has ordered notice on a petition which sought direction to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to conduct re-examination of All India Entrance Examination for Admission (AIEEA) 2018, for courses in agriculture, held online on June 22 and 23.
Justice S. Vaidyanathan, before whom a petition filed by B. Murugavel of Adyar came up for hearing on Wednesday, ordered notice to the Deputy Director General (Education), Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR, New Delhi, and adjourned the matter to July 11 for further hearing.
Murugavel, in the petition, submitted that the ICAR conducted online entrance examination for post-graduate in agriculture and PhD course on June 22 and for undergraduate courses in agriculture on June 23. His minor daughter M. Priyadarshini after completing higher secondary school aspired to get admission in B Sc (agriculture) course and appeared for online entrance examination conducted by ICAR on June 23.
V.Z. Victor, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the girl secured 85 per cent marks in the HSC examination conducted this year. The online entrance examination was scheduled to commence at 10 am at Thiruthangal Nadar College, Selavayal. She reached the examination hall (computer lab) before scheduled the time and examination was rescheduled to 12.00 noon due to technical difficulties.
All the computers, used for the entrance examination, were down with technical snag. When the examination commenced, the questions in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics subjects were not visible on the computer screen. The examiners asked her to use another computer. Even after using 12 computers, however, she faced same problem repeatedly.
The examination was delayed for more than one and half-hour. Hence, she was unable to answer all the questions within stipulated time. All 32 others candidates also faced similar problem in the centre. On June 28, she sent a representation to Deputy Director General (Education), Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR, New Delhi.
Meanwhile, ICAR proposed to publish the result of the entrance test. Victor has sought direction to authority to pass interim stay preventing ICAR from publishing the result and direct the authority to immediately conduct re-examination or to grant supplementary grace marks for the lost during the entrance test due to technical glitches.
