Patna, March 20: Chief minister Nitish Kumar and Patna High Court virtually snubbed education minister P.K. Shahi today, a day after he said it was "impossible to hold fair examinations without the co-operation of the parents".

At a high-level meeting with Shahi in the presence of chief secretary Anjani Kumar, home secretary Amir Subhani and director-general of police (DGP) P.K. Thakur, Nitish asserted the government's resolve to conduct the ongoing matriculation exams of the Bihar School Examination Board in a fair manner. He issued stringent directives to the officials concerned to ensure complete fairness at examination centres across the state.

On the other hand, the high court division bench comprising Chief Justice L. Narasimha Reddy and Justice Vikash Jain termed Shahi's statement "highly objectionable". The court, responding to a petition filed by advocate Vishal Kumar Sinha, directed the DGP to ensure "adequate deployment" of police personnel to check the unfair means at different examination centres in the state.

Petitioner Sinha said: "The court has directed all the district magistrates to submit the list of all the centre invigilators deployed in examination duties within a week. It also directed the examination board to record the exam process at all the centres on video."

Over 1.4 million students are appearing in the ongoing Class X (also known as matriculation) examination of Bihar School Examination Board across 1,217 centres in the state. The examination commenced on March 17 and would conclude on March 24.

Shahi drew double flak today for his yesterday's remark on students resorting to unfair means in the examination. "It (unfair means) is not a new phenomenon. It is impossible for the government to curb it without the co-operation of the parents," he had said yesterday after pictures of relatives helping examinees in copying were published in some dailies.

The chief minister's office today issued a statement on the issue quoting Nitish. "The pictures in a section of media showing some parents passing on answer chits to their wards by scaling the walls at a centre in Vaishali district does not tell the whole story," he stated.

"We have taken the incidents of unfair means at certain examination centres seriously. The government will not tolerate it at any cost," Nitish said, requesting the parents and guardians to co-operate with the administration conducting the exam.

"The basic purpose of education is to attain knowledge. The certificates procured on the basis of resorting to unfair means will do disservice to the future of the students as well as the state as a whole," he said.

Besides "snubbing" Shahi, Nitish - known for his penchant for good governance - today carried out some damage control-exercise. "Bihar is known for its talented pool of students. They have made the state proud by their fabulous performance in various parts of the country and abroad. If the family members of the students drive the latter to resort to unfair means, it would simply tarnish the students' image and hard work," Nitish posted on Facebook today.

The State Human Rights Commission, Bihar, on Friday took suo motu cognisance of the reports on mass copying during the matriculation examination. "It has been attributed to the minister that 40-50 lakh people are assisting 14 lakh students in copying and so the government cannot control this menace. If crime increases, would the state say it cannot be controlled?" the rights panel observed.

In a damage control-exercise, the state education department today cancelled the examination at four centres from where there were reports of mass copying. Principal secretary, education, R.K. Mahajan said: "Based on media reports and our findings, the examination conducted on March 18 and 19 at Vidya Niketan and St Francis School at Mahnar in Vaishali, Uchcha Vidhyalaya at Simri in Saharsa, and Uchcha Vidhyalaya at Nawada has been cancelled."

The principal secretary, while talking to the reporters in the presence of Bihar School Examination Board chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, admitted that there was negligence on the part of the officials.

Around 230 students were expelled from the examination for using unfair means on Friday. Chhapra topped the chart with 100 students caught using unfair means.