M A I N   N E W S

Mass copying: IITs blacklist Bathinda engg college
Bar principal, erring professors of premier institute from future academic collaborations
Aditi Tandon/TNS

The college stands barred from conducting: The all-India Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) The Joint Admission Test (JAM) to select students for MSc Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) for admission to MBA The all-India Common Entrance Examination for Design (CEED)

New Delhi, May 16
In a major embarrassment to Punjab, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) today blacklisted a premiere engineering college in Bathinda and debarred its principal and two teachers from all future academic collaborations after finding them guilty of aiding mass copying during the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) held at the institute on April 10 this year.

Giani Zail Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Dabwali Road, Bathinda, will henceforth be blacklisted for conducting any examination pertaining to the IIT system.

Further, the IITs have permanently debarred college principal Balwinder Singh Sidhu, Mukesh Grover and Preet Inder Kaur, the invigilators on duty at room number S-0 where mass copying took place on April 10.

The decision follows the report of a fact-finding committee set up by the IITs after complaints that the invigilators had blatantly assisted certain students (roll numbers mentioned in the report) with answers, allowing them extra time after the exam.

The committee was constituted on the complaint of Kotkapura resident Vipin Gupta, whose daughter Vatsa Gupta, also a JEE candidate, witnessed Grover helping a woman candidate (later found to be the daughter of the college clerk) and several other students. Oddly, they had consecutive roll numbers that enabled them to sit in a “friendly” room. The other invigilator on duty, Preet Inder Kaur, allegedly looked the other way.

Chairman, Joint Admission Board, JEE 2011, Sanjay Dhande, who is Director, IIT Kanpur, said: “After a detailed analysis of facts brought out by the committee, the complaints of providing unfair help by one of the invigilators in presence of the other in room number S-0 of the centre to some candidates in general and one Heenu Bansal in particular as well as of allowing extra time to some candidates stand proved.

“It also appears that the other officials may have some complicity in the matter. A single person could not have the freedom to help certain candidates.” While barring the institute and its teachers and principals today, the IITs formed a new committee to investigate the role of other institute representatives involved in the conduct of JEE-2011. Complainants have sought an inquiry into the nexus between IIT observers and the institute authorities.

Meanwhile, the college stands barred from conducting the all-India Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineeringheld jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven IITs; Joint Admission Test for MSc and post-BSc programmes; Joint Management Entrance Test for admission to MBAs in IITs and the all-India Common Entrance Examination for Design.