Three Class XII Bihar Board toppers skip review exam in Patna

PATNA: Three Class XII toppers of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) skipped the review exam that was held this morning. BSEB had put on hold the results of the toppers of Arts and Science streams of class 12 examination and called the first seven rank holders of the two streams for test today following media expose on some of their purported inability to answer basic questions. Arts topper Ruby Rai and Science topper Saurabh Shreshtha and Rahul failed to appear before the committee that conducted a review exam. "A total of 14 toppers, first seven rank holders each of Arts and Science streams have been called for a written exam as well as interview by a team of experts on June 3 to verify the truth of the results. Their results were also put on hold," BSEB Secretary Harihar Nath Jha said on Thursday, adding that the decision was taken last evening. Those summoned for re-exam includes Arts topper in the state's current plus-two examination Ruby Rai and Science stream topper Saurabh Kumar, he said. Some news channels had earlier shown the girl who topped the state government's plus two examination in Humanities had purportedly pronouncing 'Political Science' as 'Prodigal Science' and describing it as a subject related to cooking. Similarly, the boy who topped in Science was purportedly unaware of electron and proton. Both toppers hailed from the Bishun Rai college in Bhagwanpur in Vaishali district. The institution had courted controversy last year as well when the then Education Minister P K Shahi had ordered withholding its results following complaints of large-scale irregularities. Meanwhile, District Education Officer of Vaishali Satya Narayan Prasad said the BSEB instruction asking the toppers to appear before a team of experts in Patna was on Thursday served to the Bishun Rai College for compliance. State Education Minister Ashok Choudhary has already expressed his anger over "lapse" shown by the Board in publication of results.