RITURAJ BURMAN Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals arise from the common verdict passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in WP(C) No.2403 of 2019 and connected cases, whereby the result of the Civil Judge (Entry Level) Preliminary Examination 2019 came to be set aside because of various mistakes crept in the question paper (English & Hindi). Grievance is against the direction given to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to conduct a fresh Preliminary Examination on the basis of the advertisement dated 06.02.2019 for all those candidates who appeared in the examination and filled up the forms; though no separate examination fee shall be charged for the said examination.

(2.) Writ Appeal No.617 of 2019 has been filed by the PSC; whereas the other appeals have been preferred by the candidates who have already been short listed by virtue of their higher ranks pursuant to the declaration of result of the Preliminary Examination 2019. They were never parties to the writ petitions and hence appeals have been filed with applications seeking for 'leave' of this Court to file the appeals. We have considered the said applications and allowed the same by a separate order. Writ Appeal No.617 of 2019 filed by the PSC is treated as the lead case, which arises from WPC No.2403 of 2019 and the parties and proceedings are referred to as given in the said appeal / writ petition, except where it is separately adverted to.

(3.) The sequence of events reveals that, on making a requisition as to the need to fill up 39 posts of Civil Judge (Entry Level) in the Sub-Ordinate Judiciary, Annexure-P/2 Notification was issued by the PSC on 06.02.2019, inviting applications (online) from candidates who satisfied the qualifications / requirements as notified. As per the Notification and the Scheme of Examination, a 'Preliminary Examination' was to be conducted on 07.05.2019 with 100 questions carrying 'one mark' each, to be answered by the candidates, identifying the correct answer from the multiple choice answers given. There was to be 'no Minus marks' and the candidates were having two hours to answer the questions. The relatively more meritorious candidates from those who appeared in the Online Preliminary Examination, in the ratio of 1:10, were to be declared as qualified for appearing in the Main Examination and as notified, the candidates obtaining equal marks as obtained by the 'last candidate' shall also be declared as qualified. Same procedure was to be followed for Viva-Voce as well, on completion of the Main Examination. It was also pointed out that no mark-sheet for the Online Preliminary Examination will be issued, nor the marks obtained in that examination will be added while preparing merit list of the Main Examination, as given in Appendix-'A'. The "15 different subjects / topics" on which questions were to be set in the Online Preliminary Examination have been given in Appendix-'B'; whereas in Appendix-'C', particulars of the Main Examination and Viva- Voce have been given. The Main Examination was to consist of :