KAWALJEET SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner has approached this Court with a grievance that there has been a bonafide mistake on his part in darkening the series while filling up the aptitude test of DPE Paper I. Because of the said act on the part of the petitioner, his candidature was not duly assessed. He, however, on the basis of the result declared asserted that had the mistake not occurred, he would have secured about 142 marks in the backward class category and the last selected candidate in the said category has obtained 139 marks. Since the petitioner has more marks, he was entitled to be considered for appointment to the post of D.P.E Masters.

(2.) Upon notice having been issued, the respondents have filed an affidavit, wherein the stand taken is that the petitioner has wrongly highlighted the answer key sheet. Since the papers were not checked manually but were through OMR answer sheets on the basis of darkening of the oval of the relevant series, the petitioner has not been found to have secured the requisite marks. However, the fact that the petitioner has rightly mentioned the series as 'D' in the answer sheet, although he had darken the oval at series C in the OMR sheet is not in dispute and, thus, the petitioner would have secured marks on the basis of the answers attempted by him.

(3.) When the case came up for hearing on 28.02.2020, counsel for the State, on instructions from the official present, informed the Court that all the backward class category seats have been filled up and none of the posts is lying vacant, against which the petitioner can be accommodated.