NIDHI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By the present petition, the present petitioner-Nidhi has prayed for quashing of the result dated 11.10.2013 (Annexure P-5 and P-6) of preliminary examination of Haryana Superior Judicial Preliminary Exam- 2013 held on 22.09.2013 and with a direction to revise answer-keys for question Nos.13, 64, 73 and 114 of question booklet 'A' code series. FACTS

(2.) The Punjab and Haryana High Court had issued notification No.64 dated 29.04.2013 advertising 17 posts for appointment to the posts in Haryana Superior Judicial Services by way of direct recruitment out of which, 8 posts were meant for General Category. For the selection process, 3 stages were indicated, namely (i) Preliminary Examination, (ii) Main examination, and (iii) Viva-Voce. As per said notification, the preliminary exam would be of objective type of questions with multiple choice answers. The answer-sheet was to be evaluated with the help of computer. There would be 125 questions and each question shall carry 4 marks and for every wrong answer, 1 mark will be deducted. There was no minimum pass marks. The marks obtained in preliminary examination would not have any effect for computing the final result. The petitioner applied and appeared in the preliminary examination. On 27.09.2013, by publishing notice, objections were invited by respondent No.2 in relation to the answer-key on question paper of code 'A' series. Pursuant to the said notice, the petitioner submitted objection for question No.16 on the ground that the answer could not be option 'c', but ought to be option 'b'. Accordingly, the answer-key was corrected. The result of the preliminary examination was declared on 11.10.2013. The petitioner obtained 276 marks which were less than the cut-off marks provided for General Category which were 278. Thus, she missed the final examination.

(3.) On 24.10.2013, respondent No.2 had floated standard answer-key for code 'A' series question papers on the website. In so far as the question Nos.13, 64 and 114 are concerned, answer to those questions in the provisional answering key for 'A' code series were correct, but then they were made incorrect. In so far as the answer key for question No.73 of the same series is concerned, the same was incorrect in provisional answer-key so also in final answer-key. Providing wrong answer-key adversely affected the petitioner.