4 Toppers, 1 Centre: Patna CET Row Prompts Maharashtra To Ban Out-Of-State Exam Centres

News18

13 hours ago

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The Maharashtra government will restrict all Common Entrance Tests (CET) for professional courses to within the state from next academic year due to irregularities at Patna centre
In a significant policy shift, the Maharashtra government has decided to restrict all Common Entrance Tests (CET) for professional courses to examination centres within the state, starting next academic year. With this, students from outside Maharashtra taking the CET for a course offered by an institution will have to travel to an examination centre in the state.
'To maintain transparency and prevent malpractices in the CET, the state government has decided to restrict examination centres within Maharashtra from next year," the Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil said on Thursday.
This move comes amid rising concerns over alleged irregularities at certain centres outside Maharashtra, particularly one in Patna, Bihar, which produced an unusual cluster of top scorers in the CET for the five-year LLB course.
The controversy erupted after four students – Vishesh Kumar Pathak, Himanshu Jaiswal, Prakhar Jyoti, and Sanskriti Saundarya – emerged as toppers with a perfect 100 percentile in the Maharashtra LLB CET. All four had appeared from the same test centre, Maha Infotech, located in Patna. The exam was conducted on April 28 in two shifts, and although the four candidates took the test in different sessions, they shared the same location, raising immediate suspicions about the integrity of the process.
Officials confirmed that only one examination centre had been set up in Bihar this year, due to around 25 students applying from the state. In total, 18 exam centres were established outside Maharashtra, but the state government has now decided to eliminate all such centres following the Patna incident.
The suspicious activity of the Patna centre will be investigated, Patil told the media, adding that strict action will be taken to prevent such incidents in the future. 'Such incidents raise serious doubts and undermine the credibility of the examination process. But by conducting the CET only in Maharashtra, we can ensure better monitoring and reduce the risk of organised malpractices," PTI quoted Patil as saying.
The decision aims to bolster credibility and monitoring of the CET, which is a gateway for admissions to various undergraduate and postgraduate professional courses including law, engineering, management, and more.
The issue gained further gravity as it unfolds alongside an ongoing investigation into a broader CET-related scam.
Earlier in March, the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested three brokers from Delhi in connection with an MBA-CET admission racket. The accused reportedly collected between Rs 11 to Rs 20 lakh from aspirants in exchange for artificially inflated scores and advised them to choose remote centres in Maharashtra districts like Bhandara, Gondia, Yavatmal, and Jalna – areas allegedly under lower scrutiny.
The case involving the four Patna students is now under investigation by the Maharashtra CID. While no direct evidence of malpractice has been made public, officials say the clustering of perfect scores at a single out-of-state centre cannot be overlooked.
Each year, over 10 lakh students appear for various CETs across Maharashtra, with more than 25,000 candidates previously opting for centres outside the state. However, this option will no longer be available, even to out-of-state applicants. 'The new move would not only help maintain fairness but also enhance the integrity of the admission process," Patil told PTI.
He also addressed concerns over low participation in CETs for professional undergraduate courses like BBA, BCA, BMS, and BBM. Of more than 2,00,000 available seats, only 61,666 students appeared for the exam this year. 'Since many seats are likely to remain vacant, students will be given another opportunity to take the CET," he said.