The beleaguered candidates of the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 may not thank Harsha Shettigar for his petition against the test in the Karnataka High Court. Shettigar has filed a PIL before the court, accusing the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development of mismanaging the online computerized test introduced this year. He has sought an interim injunction preventing the announcement of the test results and has asked the Court to direct the institutions to hold the test once again, this time in the old pencil-and-paper format.

The CAT is one of the most prestigious entrance tests in India, with hundreds of thousands of students competing for approximately 1,500 MBA seats. The IIMs, in conjunction with US-based testing and assessment company, Prometric, had decided to computerize the 33 year-old pencil-and-paper test this year. Their foray into modern technology did not prove propitious, as the very first CAT exam was attended by virus attacks and technical glitches. Several candidates, who could not take the exam in the first phase due to technical malfunctions, are still awaiting fresh dates for re-examination.

All candidates who take the online test are also required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, breach of which is punishable with a fine of Rs. 2 lakh ($ 4,324) or imprisonment of upto 3 years. However, this fancy clause is attended by severe enforcement problems, as the petition points out, stating that questions asked by the online test were openly discussed on social networking sites and other public fora.

Shettigar, in his petition, alleges that the online test was subject to technical inefficiency, widespread breach of the non-disclosure clause, lack of application of mind in the question paper, and miscarriage of justice for students taking the CAT in later phases. He has asked the court to stay all further proceedings and direct the IIMs not to announce the CAT 2009 results. He has also prayed that the CAT be rescheduled for all candidates in the old pencil-and-paper format. The PIL was filed through the Bangalore-based Siji Malayil and Associates.

In the event that the Karnataka High Court admits the petition and allows Shettigar's prayer, the IIMs are likely to face a huge financial and administrative disadvantage. Around 2.4 lakh students registered to take the test this year, of whom 2.16 lakh students have already appeared for the CAT. All eyes will be on the High Court, as over 2 lakh candidates wait with bated breath to see if they might have to take the test - yet again.

The text of the petition may be found here.