GORADIA KAMLESH HARIBHAI Vs. THE UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE original petitioner, being aggrieved by the order of the learned Single Judge of October 4, 1985 dismissing his special civil application praying for appropriate writs, orders and directions to quash and set aside the moderation of his marks made by the Union Public Service Commission respondent No. 2 herein and to declare his result according to his original marks and for enjoining respondent No. 2 -Commission to restore his original marks before the impugned moderation and consequently to modify the merit list accordingly and for enjoining the Union of India to allocate the petitioner to Indian Administrative Services and to grant him suitable State cadre in light of his appropriate ranking on the basis of his original marks. A few facts need be noticed in order to understand the grievance of the petitioner in this appeal.

(2.) THE petitioner is a Commerce Graduate belonging to general category and was eligible to appear at the Civil Services Common Examination held by the Union Government for the year 1984 for purposes of recruitment to Indian Administrative and allied Services. The competitive examination comprises two Successive stages, namely (1) Civil Services Preliminary Examination (Objective Type) for the selection of candidates for the main examination, and (2) Civil Services Main Examination (written and interview) for the selection of candidates for the various services and posts. The Preliminary Examination consists of two papers of objective type (multiple choice questions) in the two subjects, namely, General Studies and one to be selected from the list of optional subjects set out in para 2 of the plan of examinations notified by the Union Government which carried 150 and 300 marks respectively. The marks obtained in this preliminary examination are not considered and counted for determining the final order of merit of successful candidates in the main examination. The candidates who are declared Successful in the Preliminary Examination are required to appear at the Main Examination which consists of written examination as well as viva voce test. The written examination as consists of eight papers, namely, two papers each for two optional subjects; two papers in General Studies; one paper in Compulsory English and one paper in Regional Language. The marks in the paper of Compulsory English and Regional Language are not counted for purposes of ranking in the examination. Each of the papers in optional subjects and in General Studies carried 300 marks thus totaling to 1800 marks in all. The viva voce) test carried 250 marks. The marks obtained by a candidate in the Main Examination (written as well as viva voce would determine his final ranking and the successful candidates are allotted to various services having regard to their ranking in the examination and the preferences expressed by them for various services and posts. The candidates are permitted to opt for the purposes of answering question papers any one of the languages included in the VIIIth Schedule to the Constitution or English as they may select.

(3.) THE petitioner appeared at the Preliminary Examination held in 1984 and selected History as his optional Subject with General Studies paper being common subject. He was declared successful in the Preliminary Examination and held to be qualified to appear at the Main Examination. His roll No. at the Main Examination was 62416 at Ahmedabad Center. The petitioner opted for Gujarati language as his medium for answering the question papers, except for the paper of Compulsory English. His optional subjects at the Main Examination were History and Gujarati Literature. He was accordingly required to appear in General Studies Paper I, General Studies Paper II, History Paper I, History Paper II, Gujarati Literature Paper I, Gujarati Literature Paper II, Compulsory English and the Paper for Regional Language, namely, Gujarati. The main examination was held in November/December, 1984 and the result thereof was declared somewhere in the month of March, 1985. The petitioner was declared successful in the written examination as intimated to him by the UPSC vide its letter of March 30, 1985. He was called for the viva voce test before the Interview Board of the UPSC constituted for interviewing candidates declared successful in the written test of the Main examination. He appeared before the Board on May 9, 1985. For the purposes of oral interview the candidates have their choice for expressing themselves in any of the Indian languages specified in Schedule VIII to the Constitution or English language, as the case may be. The petitioner opted for Gujarati language for purposes of the interview. According to the petitioner he faired well in the written test as well as in the interview in the main examination and he was expecting higher rank in the merit list than he got ultimately. He was declared finally Successful and was ranked at 483 in the merit list. The mark -sheet of the petitioner for the Main Examination was forwarded to him and it was dated June 11, 1985. The petitioner felt aggrieved since the marks in some of the papers as disclosed by the aforesaid mark -sheet were not upto his expectation and he, therefore, approached the Chairman of the UPSC personally when he learnt during his meeting with him that the petitioner had obtained higher marks particularly in General Studies Paper I, History Paper I and History Paper II than what were shown in the mark -sheet. He, therefore, made a written representation by his letter of June 13, 1985 to the Chairman expressing his apprehension that while recording marks in the mark -sheets from the original papers some errors must have crept in since there was possibility that while transcribing the marks they might have been entered into the mark -sheets of other candidates inadvertently. Since there was no response to this 'representation, he addressed another letter on June 14, 1985 reiterating the same apprehension. The UPSC, however, by their letter of June 21, 1985 informed the petitioner that the Commission re -checked the marks of the petitioner in light of the apprehension expressed by him in his aforesaid letter of June 14, 1985 but they have not found any mistake as apprehended by him. The petitioner went for an oral representation before the Chairman and it was transpired in the meeting that his marks particularly in the aforesaid three subjects, namely General Studies Paper I, History Paper I and History Paper II were slashed down from his original marks of 200, 219 and 232 respectively to 151, 163 and 189 as a result of the moderation made by the UPSC for purposes of ranking of candidates who had option to select any two of the optional Subjects and also in selecting the medium of answering the question papers. The net result of the moderation was that his aggregate marks of 1179 (1049 in Written test and 130 in viva voce test) were reduced to 1029 by slashing of 150 marks in the aforesaid three subjects with the result that his overall ranking went down appreciably. The petitioner, therefore, made a demand of justice from the UPSC by requesting the Commission telegraphically to rectify the mark -sheet and/or to furnish him with the rules of moderation, if there are any, failing which he informed the Commission that he would be compelled to move the High Court. This telegraphic request was made on August 24, 1985.