In a setback to hundreds of job aspirants demanding cancellation of Bihar Public Service Commission exams, the Patna high court on Friday ruled there was "no definitive evidence of malpractice" in the tests that were conducted in December last year.

A division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar made the observation while dismissing a bunch of petitions challenging the Combined Competitive Exams (CCE) (Preliminary) held on December 13 last year at more than 900 centres across the state.

The bench, which also included Justice Partha Sarathy, asked the commission to "carry out the mains examination, ensuring that the process is peaceful, fair and transparent".

"We are of the view that the prayers made on behalf of the petitioners cannot be acceded to," the court said, adding that "there appear to have been lapses but those are not of the kind and magnitude which would discredit the purity and fairness of the examination".

The CCE prelims had run into a controversy on account of a "boycott" of the tests by hundreds of candidates, all of whom had been assigned the Bapu Pariksha Parisar in the state capital.

The candidates, who had alleged that the question paper was "leaked", appeared for their tests weeks later when the administration dispersed them across a dozen exam centres across the city.

However, this was resented by several other candidates who alleged that they were being denied a "level playing field" and that there were complaints of irregularities at more than 100 examination centres.

The protesters, who staged an indefinite dharna to press the demand for re-examination, received support from leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav and his allies in the INDIA bloc.

Soon afterwards, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor jumped on the bandwagon, pledging legal assistance to the protesters, and going on a "fast unto death" which was called off within a fortnight by the 47-year-old leader upon the advice of doctors monitoring his health.

Among the lawyers arguing on behalf of the petitioners was senior lawyer and Jan Suraaj Party's state vice president Y V Giri.

Advocate Ashok Kumar Dubey, who was assisting Giri, told reporters "a decision on whether or not to challenge the order would be taken after a perusal of the bulky judgement", which ran into more than 70 pages.

Dubey, however, pointed out that the court has suggested a number of "corrective measures" the commission would henceforth be expected to take.

The court advised the commission to set up a "high-level committee, comprising experts who would ensure a review of security measures and overall management of the examination".

Also, the commission has been asked by the court to "make structural changes for addressing the vulnerabilities in the process of examination".

"A dedicated wing should be created to register complaints during the examination process at all stages. Higher technology of digital watermarking and tracking be adopted", the court added in its observations.

A key feature of the protests was the active participation of coaching institute owners, many of whom ended up being booked by the administration for incitement to violence.

One of the observations made by the court was that "coaching centre owners ought to be more responsible in their conduct, which is expected of them".

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