Bathinda: The sit-in outside Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) in Faridkot for action into the alleged paper leak in the pharmacy officer recruitment examination was lifted after a week on Tuesday.Punjab Students Union and Naujawan Bharat Sabha relented after deciding to wait for the outcome of the petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking cancellation of the written examination. The court has directed that the next selection process would remain subject to the outcome of the case.The activists, supported by employee, farm and worker organisations, are demanding a re-examination, an impartial inquiry and resignation of state health minister Balbir Singh.Punjab Student Union state general secretary Dheeraj Fazilka and Faridkot district president Harveer Kaur Gandhar have rejected contentions of the govt that that it was a case of hi-tech cheating and not a paper leak. “Cheating at such a big level is not possible without the connivance of insiders. The paper had come out in 5 minutes and reached till Haryana,” they claimed.The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notice on a petition seeking cancellation of the written examination for recruitment to 454 Pharmacist (Pharmacy Officer), Group C posts in the Punjab Health and Family Welfare Department, following allegations that an organised inter-state cheating racket had compromised the test.Hearing a writ petition filed by four candidates, Justice Sandeep Moudgil directed that the further selection process would remain subject to the outcome of the case.The petition challenges the examination conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences on July 19 pursuant to Advertisement No. BFU-26/20 dated June 11, 2026. The petitioners, belonging to the Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Economically Weaker Section categories, alleged that the examination had been rendered unfair by a sophisticated cheating network using concealed electronic devices.According to the plea, around 7,000 candidates appeared at 25 examination centres in Faridkot, Kotkapura and Ferozepur. The petition alleges that within minutes of the examination commencing, the question paper was scanned using a concealed pen camera and transmitted via WhatsApp to an accomplice in Haryana. The answers were then allegedly relayed from a control room in Faridkot to candidates inside examination halls through wireless micro-devices.
