SHIMLA: The Supreme Court in Delhi on Friday dismissed a special leave petition filed by Himachal University students who had been named "suspicious" by a police enquiry committee constituted by the Himachal High Court. A Division Bench of Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice D.K. Jain declined to interfere with the judgment delivered earlier in the matter by the Himachal High Court.

The Court, however, ordered the investigative agencies to stop interrogation of the tainted students and their parents till the 23rd of August. The University had fixed the re-examination date for the State combined Pre Medical Test for August 20.

The Supreme Court also refused the plea of some of the petitioners to stop investigations or arrests in the paper leakage matter and just go on with the re-examination.

Advocates Arun Jaitley, Indu Malhotra and Vikas Mehta appeared for the Action Committee of the aggrieved parents and students and J.L. Gupta appeared for the students selected in the first list. Former Additional Solicitor-General of India Mukul Rohatgi also appeared for these students.

The parents of some of the students who were named "tainted" by the police investigations after the enquiry ordered by the High Court had approached the Supreme Court. The police after a thorough probe of the first 60 selected candidates had named 38 candidates as "suspicious" and appeared to have taken the advantage of the leakage of the PMT question paper.

The High Court had ordered Himachal University to undertake PMT re-examination and lodge an FIR against those involved in the paper leak.

Decision hailed

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has hailed the decision of the Supreme Court and said it vindicated the stand taken by the party since the present scam came to light.

It congratulated organisations like the Action Committee of parents and students, SFI, DYFI and all others who were involved in the struggle to unearth the inter-State paper leak racket.

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