Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday direct cancellation of the main examination of Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) at “whatever stage it is as on date”.
A division bench of Justice Janak Raj Kotwal and Justice Sanjeev Kumar also direct the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission to hold the main examination afresh by permitting all the candidates who have been shortlisted to participate in the preliminary examination on the basis of their merit determined upon re-evaluation,
It also directed that JKPSC to allow to participate candidates numbering 429 who were shortlisted in the first result of the preliminary examination but could not make it to participate in the main examination on the basis of their merit determined in the process of re-evaluation, and all those candidates (PSC puts their number as 2365) who have obtained merit in the preliminary examination determined in the process of re-evaluation equal to or more than the marks secured by the last candidate amongst 429 candidates.
“Since the examination in question has been delayed due to litigation, we hope and trust that the appellant would take immediate steps to hold the main examination and complete the whole process culminating into declaration of result without any further wastage of time,” the court added. On February 23, the High court had reserved its verdict on J&K PSC appeal, challenging the single bench’s judgment dated December 29 by virtue of which the J&KPSC was directed to allow the aspirants who appeared in first notification of shortlisted candidates as well as those appearing in the revised list, issued after 108 days.
The J&PSC, the court had said, has an “onerous responsibility to exert and exercise the highest degree of care and caution in handling the examinations and to maintain transparency so that the candidates repose trust and confidence in the institution.”
“It is not understood why Rule 12(B) was deleted when it was certainly in the public interest. If the OMR sheets and Answer Keys are disclosed after the examination, it will be in the public interest and not in the so called protected interest of the Commission.”
As per Rule 12(B), inserted in the J&KPSC(Conduct of Examination) Rules, 2005, vide notification No (PSC/Exam/2015/12) on 13 of August 2015 provided: “The Controller of Examinations will release the key of question paper preferably immediately after the conclusion of the Examination/ Test or on the working day following the day of the test. The keys will be uploaded on the website of the Commission.”
The court had added: “No semblance of fairness can be attached to the statement of the Commission that the revised list was drawn after adhering to the norms and the rules which on the basis of the plea submitted by them before the Jammu wing of the High Court in SWP No. 1138/2017 runs into complete contradiction. It does not portray the correct position as the Commission took a definite stand before the Court that they have adhered to all the norms, rules and the law governing the subject and have vehemently denied that there is any error in the list so prepared and published vide notification 23rd of April, 2017.”
In June, the J&KPSC had invited online applications for admission to the J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, 2016, to fill up 277 posts in the pay scale of Rs.9300-34800 with the grade pay of Rs.4800, in the various Services—Junior Scale of J&K Administrative Service, J&K Police (Gazetted) Service and J&K Accounts (Gazetted) Service. It received 47122 applications, out of which 36,681 candidates appeared in the preliminary examination on March 3. The result of shortlisted candidates was declared on April 23 and cut off merit was 270.77 points. 6925 candidates were declared as qualified for admission to the J&K Combined Competitive (Main) Examination, 2016. The number of the candidates admitted to the Main Examination was in the proportion of 25 times of the total number of vacancies. Later the J&KPSC revised the cut-off merit at 277.275 points and issued a revised result on August 9 as a result, 429 candidates could not make it to the cut-off merit for appearing in the Combined Services Competitive (main) examination.
The counsel representing J&KPSC had argued that the list was revised as the wrong answer keys could not have be persisted with and its benefit extended to a candidate. He argued while applying the corrected key to OMR sheets of all the candidates across the board, the cut off merit jumped from 270.477 to 277.275, as a corollary to which, 429 candidates who were declared qualified earlier had to give way to equal number of candidates who obtained merit equal to or higher than the cut off merit so fixed—277.275 marks by reason of rectification of answer keys. The petitioners on the other hand contended that the commission can’t go against the Supreme Court guidelines on the subject.
