The court held that the evidence presented clearly established that there had been fraud, manipulation, and use of unfair means in the CEEE, and that the private respondents had engaged in unfair means by copying answers from the memorandum of answers. The court concluded that the selection and admission of the private respondents to engineering colleges were vitiated and ordered their cancellation.

Nagendra Rai, J.

1. All these writ applications have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. Each of the three writ applications has been filed by the single petitioner. By order dated 30-8-1996, one Arun Kumar was added as petitioner No.2 in C. W. J. C. No.7779 of 1996. The petitioners have filed the present applications for cancellation of the result of the Combined Entrance engineering Examination (in short c. E. E. E. ), 1996, on the ground of manipulation and use of unfairmeans in the examination, and also for re-evaluation of their answer-sheets and on re-evaluation to declare them as successful candidates.

3. Before proceeding to state the respective cases of the petitioners and the stands taken by the respondents it would be appropriate to refer at this stage the relevant provisions and the rules for conducting the C. E. E. Examination and the relevant dates on which the different formalities including the examination have been conducted. The examination is conducted by the state of Bihar (Department of Science and Technology) for admission to different Engineering Colleges in the State of Bihar and for nomination of the candidates to different Regional Engineering Colleges outside State to the extent of the quota fixed for the State. On the 7th of May, 1991, the State Government framed rule known as Combined Engineering Entrance Examination Rule, 1991, which came into force from the 1st of February, 1991. A copy of the said rule has been annexed as Annexure-5 by the writ petitioners. Chapter 6 provides that a combined Entrance Engineering examination Committee has to be constituted consisting of six members. The five members will be the Principal of engineering Colleges, out of whom one would be the Convenor. The sixth member will be a representative of the department of Science and Technology. Chapter 9 deals with the examination and paragraph 9.1.1. thereof provides that the aforesaid Committee shall be responsible for the conduct of the examination. The confidential works, regarding setting of papers, printing and packeting will be done by the Convenor. Paragraph 9.4.1 provides that there will be double codings of the answer-sheets. The first coding will be done by the members of the Committee, excluding the Convenor. The second coding will be done by a Committee of three senior professors of the Engineering Colleges to be nominated/selected by the Convenor. In 1993, the State of Bihar in the department of Science and Technology issued a resolution on 5-5-1993, by which it framed a Rule known as "in the manner of allocation of the conduct of the Entrance Examination". According to the said resolution, the Committee of six members, as mentioned in the resolution shall consist of the Principal of M. I. T. , Muzaffarpur, Principal of the b. C. I. , Bhagalpur, Director of B. I. T. , sindri, the Principal of B. C. . I. , Patna, the principal of R. I. T. , Jamshedpur and the joint Director as representative of the head Office. The Convenor of the committee will be the Principal of m. I. T. , Muzaffarpur, the Principal of b. C. I. , Bhagalpur and the Director, b. I. T. , Sindri, in rotation. A copy of the said resolution has been annexed as An-nexure A/r-1 to the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of Respondent No.1.

4. The Government selected three engineering Colleges, namely, the b. I. T. , Sindri, B. C. . I. , Bhagalpur and m. I. T. , Muzaffarpur, for conduct of the examination and according to the resolution of 1993, the Principals of the said Colleges have to be made Convenor as the examination was to be conducted in the said Institute according to rotation. In 1996, it was the turn of m. I. T. , Muzaffarpur, to conduct the examination and the Principal of the College was to be made the Convenor according to the rules. It appears that on the 20th of April, 1996, Dr. Kamesh-war Prasad, Principal of the said College was appointed as Convenor by the government (Annexure B/r-1 ).