ARIF AHMED CHOUDHURY Vs. ASSAM PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. P.K. Roy Choudhury and Mr. G.Z. Ahmed, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. T.J. Mahanta, learned senior counsel, assisted by Mr. P.P. Dutta, standing counsel for APSC and Mr. G. Bordoloi, learned Govt. Advocate. W.P.(C) 3581/2019

(2.) The petitioner states that he is a post graduate in law and that having qualified in the Combined Competitive Examination, 2009 conducted by APSC, he was appointed as Inspector of Taxes w.e.f. 19.08.2003 and at the time of filing the writ petition, he was posted as Inspector of Taxes, Unit-C, Guwahati, which is a Pay Band-3 post. The case of the petitioner is that being eligible, he applied for Assam Civil Services and Allied Services under Combined Competitive Examination, 2016 conducted by APSC for section to Pay-Band4 posts. The petitioner was allotted Roll No. 091900124. The preliminary examination was held on 02.07.2017, wherein he had qualified and he appeared in the Main Examination on 18.02.2018 for General Studies, on 27.02.2018 for Persian-I and II, on 10.03.2018 for Political Science-I and II and on 18.03.2018 for General English. The petitioner qualified the Main Examination and was given a call letter dated 15.10.2018 for appearing in viva-voce interview for Assam Civil Services and Allied Services under Combined Competitive Examination, 2016, which was scheduled on 30.10.2018. However, the name of the petitioner did not figure in the select list. Thereafter, by submitting a RTI application dated 21.11.2018 before the State Public Information Officer, APSC, the petitioner had applied for marks obtained by him in his papers of General Studies, Persian-I and II, Political Science-I and II and General English as well as in viva-voce examination along with photocopy of answer scripts and the grand total marks obtained by all successful candidates of Combined Competitive Examination, 2016. However, the Secretary, APSC had uploaded the impugned notification no. 230PSC/GRC1/2017-18 dated 27.12.2018 in its website, inter alia, providing that in terms of order dated 06.09.2018, passed by the Supreme Court of India in the case of Angesh Kumar & Ors. Vs. Union Public Service Commission & Anr., Review Petition (Civil) Diary No. 24763/2018 in Civil Appeal Nos. 6159-6162 of 2013 decided on 06.09.2018, [hereinafter referred to as Angesh Kumar (II)] no photocopy of the answer scripts of candidates of Combined Competitive Examination, 2016 can be issued. However, subsequently, the marks obtained by the petitioner were uploaded on 14.02.2019, and he had obtained 839 marks, but the marks obtained by successful candidates were not uploaded. W.P.(C) 1374/2019

(3.) The case of the petitioner is that he had secured M.A. (English) degree with first class from Jawaharlal Nehru University in the in the year 2002. Thereafter, he had cleared his Ph.D. (English) in the year 2017 from Gauhati University. The petitioner had also cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) for Lectureship in the year 2014. The petitioner is working as Assistant Professor in the Department of English in Bodoland University from 24.09.2012 onwards. The petitioner applied for APSC Combined Competitive Examination (Prelims), 2016 and results were declared vide notification dated 25.10.2017, wherein the petitioner with Roll No. 131200042 was declared qualified. The petitioner appeared in APSC Combined Competitive Examination (Mains), 2016 from 18.02.2018 to 25.03.2018 and the petitioner was declared successful vide notification dated 01.10.2018. The petitioner was called for viva-voce examination on 03.11.2018. The final results were declared vide notification dated 16.11.2018 and the petitioner's roll number did not figure as successful candidate. Accordingly, on 17.11.2018, the petitioner sought for the following information by his RTI application, viz., (a) Marks allotted to Roll No. 131200042 in each paper, (b) Marks awarded to Roll No. 1312000042 in viva, (c) Cut off marks of each category (Gen/OBC/SC/ST/PH, etc.) in Mains and Final List, (d) Marks allotted to qualified candidates and their category (Gen/OBC/SC/ST/PH, etc.), and (e) Photocopies of OMR Answer Sheet of English, General Studies, English (Optional), Education (Optional) (Roll No. 131200042). The APSC declared the marks of the candidates who had appeared in the viva-voce test by publishing it in the website of APSC and the petitioner secured the following marks, viz., General Study (158), General English (160), Edu-I (122), Edu-II (150), Eng-I (154), Eng-II (140), Grand Total- (864). W.P.(C) 1555/2019: