Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sandhu of Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench on Thursday admitted a petition against registration of a case against four supervisory staff members and 68 students on the charges of cheating and establishing a fake examination hall during final examinations of diploma in associate engineering.
Counsel for the students, Advocate Raja Saim-ul-Haq Satti, submitted before the court that according to the 1950 Act of the Punjab University, no organisation except Anti-Corruption Department had authority to probe such cases. He said that under the rules it was the responsibility of the anti-corruption director to conduct an inquiry into a case and send his report to police for registration of a case against an accused if he was found guilty. “But in the said case local police registered a case against the students,” he added.
On June 27, Waris Khan police raided Government Shimla Elementary School in Arya Mohallah on the information of the Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE) controller examination that an organised cheating was going on there and caught 68 students, a headmaster, a deputy superintendent and two examiners red handed. The students appearing in the final exams for a three-year diploma in associate engineering paid Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 for getting the chance to again attempt the electrical engineering paper.
While making Waris Khan police and the magistrate concerned respondents, the counsel contended that Magistrate Ismail Tasleem ordered the Waris Khan police to register a case against the accused on June 28th despite the fact that the said case fell under the domain of a special judge for anti-corruption.
He stated that such act of the local police was a sheer violation of the law and had put future of the students at stake. After hearing the arguments, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sandhu directed the respondents to submit their reply within 14 days and also prevent the magistrate concerned from conducting further proceedings in the said case.
