The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on a man accused of using a proxy candidate to appear in his place during the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) held in Uttar Pradesh in December 2024, warning that such actions erode the integrity of public examinations.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, while hearing the plea of accused Sandeep Singh Patel against denial of bail, observed, “You are destroying the entire system of public examinations. There are a number of candidates who suffer because of such people.”
The court even invoked a cinematic reference, remarking, “Munna Bhai andar rehna chahiye,” alluding to the 2003 Bollywood film Munna Bhai MBBS, where the protagonist resorts to impersonation in an examination.
According to the prosecution, the alleged malpractice occurred on December 15, 2024, when Patel’s proxy—referred to as a “solver”—was caught attempting the CTET on his behalf at a school centre. The discrepancy surfaced when the candidate’s biometric verification failed, and it was discovered that the real examinee had been replaced using a forged admit card.
The school principal lodged a complaint, following which Patel and others were booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Uttar Pradesh Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act.
Patel’s counsel argued before the Supreme Court that three people were charge-sheeted in the case, and two of them, including the purported proxy, had already been granted bail. He also contended that Patel had been hospitalised on the day of the exam and was falsely implicated in the case.
Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had denied him bail, holding that proxy appearances in examinations “undermine the integrity of the educational system and have serious implications for society.”
While refusing immediate relief, the apex court issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government seeking its response and listed the matter for further hearing after four weeks.
