Rajasthan High Court Rejects Plea Challenging RJS Civil Judge 2024 Prelims Answer Key
While dismissing the petition seeking quashing of answer key of the Rajasthan Judicial Services Examination 2024 and publication of revised results, Rajasthan High Court held that in matters of academic evaluation or determination of correct answers in a competitive examination, Court was not an appellate authority over decision of the Expert Committee.
“The Committee consists of persons possessing specialized knowledge in the relevant field, and their academic opinion deserves due deference.”
The division bench of Justice Arun Monga and Justice Sunil Beniwal further observed that the Court must balance the equities. Since the successful candidates were not parties to the case, passing any order in their absence that might adversely affect them would amount to travesty of justice, without yielding any tangible benefit to the petitioner.
The petitioner was an unsuccessful candidate in the RJS examination who had filed a writ before the Court seeking quashing of final answer key for prelims exam and preparation of revised result, on the ground that the objections to the model answer key were not duly considered by the respondents.
It was argued by the respondents that an Expert Committee was formed to adjudicate the objections to the answer key and all objections were dealt with.
After hearing petitioner's contentions in relation to every question that was the subject matter of grievance, the Court observed that Expert's committee opinion on the answer keys of competitive examinations should not be interfered with by the Court in an ordinary manner.
“Even assuming that the interpretation suggested by the petitioner is plausible, the existence of an alternative view cannot by itself justify interference. Where two reasonable views are possible in an academic matter, the view adopted by the Expert Committee must ordinarily prevail.”
Furthermore, the Court stated that once the petitioner had taken part in the process that had a chance of success, she could not challenge the outcome just because the result was unfavorable for her.
“Competitive examinations involving large numbers of candidates require finality and certainty. Entertaining individual grievances regarding interpretation of answers, particularly after completion of the selection process, would unsettle the recruitment and adversely affect candidates who have already been selected and appointed.”
In this background, the petition was dismissed, while praising the diligence, clarity and perseverance of the petitioner in presenting her argument even after the selection process was over and appointment letters were issued.
Title: Khushbu Choudhary v Rajasthan High Court
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 106