Unsuccessful Candidate Can't Challenge Expert Opinion Later, Claiming That Self Assessment Showed His Answers To Be Correct: Rajasthan HC

The Jodhpur bench of the Rajasthan High Court has reiterated that an unsuccessful candidate cannot later challenge the opinion of experts on the ground that in their self assessment the candidate believes their answer to be correct going against the expert opinion. In doing so the high court the dismissed an man's plea who could not qualify the Assistant Engineer (Mechanical) exam, but had sought bonus marks or deletion of those questions that he could not attempt claiming that he was not provided with a steam table and psychometric chart. Justice Arun Monga said, "Trite as it may sound, it is a settled position of law that a candidate, having remained unsuccessful, one cannot later challenge the opinion of the experts on the ground that, in their self-assessment, they believe their answer to be correct rather than what the experts have opined". The court said that grievances and objections should have been raised either immediately after the examination or before the declaration of results, but were filed 18 months after the examination and 43 days after the results."Moreover, it was open to the petitioner to challenge the answers to the questions he felt aggrieved based on his own assessment, before the process of appointment was initiated, i.e., after the declaration of results on 04.03.2021," the court added. The petitioner had applied for the post of Assistant Engineer (Mechanical). During its examination, he could not attempt two questions and it was alleged that the material required to attempt those i.e. the steam table and the psychometric chart were not provided. Ultimately, he could not clear the exam, and moved the high court. While denying the claims of the petitioner, it was submitted by the State that the petitioner could not be permitted to raise such a delay, and it should have been raise immediately after the exam. The State argued that there was no explanation for such delay and the objections seemed like an afterthought since the petitioner failed to qualify the exam. After hearing the contention, the Court said that it was open to the petitioner to challenge the non-providing of the requisite material during examination either immediately after the examination or before the declaration of results.“It appears that the petitioner acquiesced to his fait Accompli and, only after remaining unsuccessful, belatedly challenged the same. The non-availability of requisite material, in any case, was uniform across all candidates. Therefore, singling out the petitioner by awarding him bonus marks on account thereof would amount to hostile discrimination against those who are not before this Court,” it added. Accordingly, the petition was dismissed on the grounds of delay, laches and lack of merit. Title: Kalyan Choudhary v State of Rajasthan & Ors.Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 34Click Here To Read/Download Order

Unsuccessful Candidate Can't Challenge Expert Opinion Later, Claiming That Self Assessment Showed His Answers To Be Correct: Rajasthan HC

Nupur Agrawal

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