ANKITA MITTAL Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge in the present writ petition is to the result declared on 29.01.2015 of the Preliminary Haryana Civil Services (Judicial Branch). The preliminary examination, a short-listing examination, was conducted on 10.01.2015 by giving 125 Objective Type Multiple Choice Questions. After putting proposed answer-key on the website, it has been decided to delete five questions out of the total 125 question i.e. Question Nos. 10, 40, 108, 109, 114 from Code 'C' set.

(2.) Apart from the challenge to the deletion of five questions, the petitioner also challenged the final answer-key in respect of Questions No. 42 and 90 for Code 'C' set. The said questions read as under:--

(3.) In respect of deletion of five questions, we find as to whether a particular answer to a particular question is ambiguous or not or warrants any clarification is a decision which is required to be taken by experts on the basis of various inputs received by them. Once it has been decided to delete five questions, the deletion is applicable across all candidates. The result is that instead of 125 questions the candidates have been marked out of 120 questions. Thus, it cannot be said that the petitioner has suffered any prejudice since all candidates have been treated at par. We also do not find any merit in the argument raised that the examining body was not competent to delete any question. The preliminary examination is a short-listing examination for the candidates. The process of examination has been applied uniformly to all the candidates. If it has been found that five questions are such which have multiple answers or the frame of the questions is not clear, the same could very well be deleted. The consequences of deletion is that all candidates whether they have attempted such questions or not or attempted such questions rightly or wrongly are treated at par as no credit or discredit is given to any candidate of such questions. The decision to delete a question lies in the wisdom of the experts who in the process of finalization of the answer key have decided to delete such questions. It is not necessary that there should be a condition in the advertisement itself that an objective type question can be deleted by the examining body in the process of finalization of the answer key.