SURYANSH TIWARI Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner has approached this Court, seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) Briefly put, the case of the petitioner is as follows: On 16/5/2025, the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission issued an advertisement inviting applications for the Uttarakhand Judicial Services Civil Judge (Junior Division) Examination, 2023. Pursuant to the said advertisement, the petitioner duly submitted his application and participated in the Preliminary Examination. The petitioner was allotted Question Booklet Series 'A'. He attempted all questions in the said examination, including Questions No. 120, 132, 145, 158 and 129. The petitioner selected Option 'd' as the correct answer for Question No. 120, Option 'c' for Question No. 132, Option 'c' for Question No. 145, Option 'a' for Question No. 158 and Option 'b' for Question No. 129. Subsequently, on 4/9/2025, the respondentCommission uploaded the provisional answer key on its official website. As per the provisional answer key, Option 'b' was shown as correct for Question No. 120, Option 'a' for Question No. 132, Option 'd' for Question No. 145, Option 'd' for Question No. 158 and Commission dropped the Question No. 129. Objections were invited from candidates with respect to the provisional answer key. Petitioner submitted objections to several answers, including the ones under challenge in the present writ petition. After obtaining the opinion of subject experts on the objections submitted by various candidates, the Commission issued a revised (amended) answer key on 30. 09.2025. On 31/10/2025, the Commission declared the result of the Preliminary Examination and published the list of candidates qualified for the Mains Examination along with the cut-off marks. The last candidate qualifying in the Open Category had secured 162.1218 marks. The Commission also published the individual marks of each candidate. The petitioner, as per the published result, secured 161.1117 marks and was thereby rendered ineligible for the Mains Examination.

(3.) Question no. 120 of Set 'A' of General Knowledge and Acts and Laws paper, which reads as under:-