Rajasthan Civil Judge Examination: Mains Postponed In Light Of High Court Judgment, Fresh Dates To Be Announced Soon [Read Judgment]

Mains Examination for recruitment of civil judges in the subordinate judiciary of Rajasthan scheduled on 27th and 28th of July 2019 has been postponed and fresh dates and time schedule of the Main examination will be announced soon. Background This came on the heels of Rajasthan High Court Judgment in case of Aarti Meena v. Rajasthan High Court wherein court decided on a batch of writ petitions that had challenged correctness of final answer key of the preliminary examination issued by the respondent Rajasthan High Court dated 20.05.2019 for recruitment of 197 posts to Civil Judge Cadre, notified vide advertisement dated 15.11.2018. Challenge had been made to decision of the respondent-High Court establishment, deleting five questions of the question paper of preliminary examination. In the alternative, prayer had also been made for award of bonus marks for the deleted five questions. It also challenged answers to twenty other questions on different grounds. Direction to respondents' Bench of Justice Narendra Singh Dhaddha and Justice Mohammad Rafiq partially allowing the writ petitions directed the respondents to delete Question A/66, B/62, C/55, D/66, from the question-paper booklet and keeping in view the ratio of judgment of the Supreme Court in Pallav Mongia V. Registrar General, Delhi High Court (2012) to re-compute the marks so as to prepare fresh list of eligible candidates, by including all such candidates therein, who secure more marks than the last candidate originally allowed to appear in the main examination and apart from originally allowed candidates, also permit the candidates newly included in the eligibility list, to appear in the main examination, for recruitment to Civil Judge Cadre. Contentions Contention of counsel for the petitioners was that deletion of five questions from the question booklet has diminished the chances of the candidates, who diligently prepared for the examination and marked the correct answers to the question. Even in a case where there are multiple correct options, deletion of the questions would only work to the advantage of those who have chosen wrong answers, thereby putting the candidates who have attempted the correct answer in a disadvantageous position. The appropriate course, it was argued, even in the case of multiple correct answers, would be to award marks to each of those candidates, who selected any one of the correct answers. It was also argued that the Expert Committee ought not to have given vague and unclear opinion. Its opinion in respect of five deleted questions was that either questions be deleted or any other appropriate decision, which is in the interest of the examinees, be taken. The best decision in the interest of the examinees would have been to award marks to all the candidates who chose any one of the correct answers. The decision of the respondent to delete the questions was therefore arbitrary, unreasonable and liable to be set aside. Counsel for the petitioners also submitted that in view of the discrepancies found in number of questions/answers, present Court should appoint a fresh Expert Committee as was done by the Supreme Court in Richal Vs. Rajasthan Public Service Commission and Others - (2018) 8 SCC 81, with regard to recruitment to the post of School Lecturers. Rajesh Sharma, counsel for petitioner Arti Meena, also submitted that the petitioner being a female candidate of Scheduled Tribe category, the respondents were required to notify a separate cut off for female candidates in each reserved category, viz., Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes etc. On the other hand, A.K. Sharma, senior counsel for respondent, submitted before the court that scope of judicial review of correctness of answer key has been considered by the Supreme Court as well as present Court time and again. The Courts have entertained such challenge only on very limited grounds and have always given due weightage to the opinion of the subject experts. Even if there are any conflicting views in text books or other study material, each person should bow down to the opinion of experts, he argued. The court should not at all reevaluate or scrutinize the answer sheets of a candidate as it has no expertise, for academic matters are best left to academicians. Observations of Court Court at outset rejected the contention that separate cut off marks should be declared for female candidates of the reserved categories, i.e., Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, for the simple reason that the respondents in their reply to the writ petition filed in D.B. Civil Writ Petition No.10022/2019 - Arti Meena Vs. Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur through its Registrar, have categorically stated that separate cut off marks for women candidates of all categories have not been issued, reason being that more than required number of women have already found place in the main list ...

Rajasthan Civil Judge Examination: Mains Postponed In Light Of High Court Judgment, Fresh Dates To Be Announced Soon [Read Judgment]

Shayesta Nazir

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