Supreme Court Raises Questions Over Manner In Which Punjab & Haryana Superior Judicial Services Main Written Examination- 2019 Was Conducted

"The High Court is conducting examinations for District Judges... courts come down heavily on educational institutions when they conduct exams in a flip flop manner. The manner in which the exam has been conducted is troubling us," the vacation bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna remarked.

The bench was considering a Special Leave Petition assailing Punjab & Haryana High Court's order dated January 23, 2020 of dismissing the writ wherein relief was sought for declaration of the result afresh after removing the discrepancies/anomalies and for restraining the HC to conduct the interview/ viva voce as per schedule uploaded on the website of Punjab and Haryana High Court on 18.12.2019.

When the matter was called for hearing, counsel for the petitioner submitted that the number of vacancies for the State of Punjab was 9 and for the State of Haryana was 11. Out of this, 3 candidates have been shortlisted for Punjab & 8 in Haryana.

Further apprising the bench of the facts, counsel said, "HC could not even find equal number of candidates who are suitable for the selection. I wasn't even considered for the vacancies:.

The petitioner's counsel said, "The HC had come up with a list of the candidates who were rejected since the did not fulfill the criteria. The exam was spread over 3 days 6 exams of 3 hours each. They have just uploaded the number of the successful candidates who were selected for the interview on the website on the 17th day."

"Results are declared in 17 days. How many evaluators were there? There is decoding & coding, who are the persons who evaluated these papers? High Court judges ? Can 400*6 papers to be corrected in 16 days ?," remarked Justice BV Nagarathna.

Posing questions to the counsel appearing for the HC, the judge further said,

"In 17 days, how could so many papers be evaluated is the question? We're asking the HC counsel. In 17 days how many candidates were there? Atleast 3? For 1 state how many papers you have to answer? 

Question is the procedure adopted under the process. Is that the correct procedure? If there were so many papers, how could 2000 papers be coded, de coded, evaluated in 17 days by HC judges? We're asking a practical question. This itself is the wrong thing."

Responding to the questions posed by the judge, counsel for the HC said, "Protocol that has been followed was the subject matter of the SC's decision. This issue has cropped up earlier also and all of this, is on the recommendation of Justice Sikri's committee which is recorded in 2020 Vol 50 SCC."

The petitioner's counsel further said that the candidates at the beginning were provided an incomplete question paper of criminal law and were then subsequently given supplemental question paper.

At this point, Justice Ajay Rastogi said, "Have you ever heard of this mechanism? You made the paper available during the hours of attempt?"

"Is that the manner in which the exam of judges must be held?" asked Justice Nagarathna.

"Question paper is finalised by the committee of judges. HC had also sought guidance on this aspect from the UGC. The HC cannot overturn its own judicial order," responded the HC's counsel.

Since the counsel was appearing through VC, the bench adjourned the matter for July 27, asking him to appear physically

"You come down to court, it's very difficult for us to understand," Justice Rastogi said.

Case Title: Harkirat Singh Ghuman v Punjab and Haryana HC| SLP (C) 5079 of 2020