COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION CANDIDATES ASSOCIATION Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition in the nature of a Public Interest Litigation has been / preferred with the following prayers:

(2.) A brief statement of facts essential for the disposal of the writ petition may be indicated. The petitioner claims to be an Association of the candidates for 53rd to 55th Competitive Combined Examination, and is represented by Pankaj Tiwary, its President, who is a citizen of India. The writ petition in substance is to bring about improvement and standardization in evaluation of answer books for the combined competitive examinations held by the Bihar Public Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as 'Commission'), for appointment to different posts, in so far as descriptive answer books are concerned where the candidates have the option of selection of subjects, in contradistinction to objective answer books which are evaluated by the computer, or examinations where the candidates do not have the choice of selection of optional papers and ail papers are compulsory. It is stated in the writ petition that the present method of evaluation of such descriptive answer books where the candidates have the choice of selection of optional papers needs improvement, and corrective measures have been suggested, namely, moderation of answer books and scaling of marks upwards or downwards obtained by candidates in subjects either abnormally on the higher side or on the lower side. We do not feel the necessity to state in detail the circumstances under which the two measures are required to be introduced as part of the evaluation process by the Commission because the same have, with respect to a different examination, been exhaustively discussed by the Supreme Court in its judgment in the case of Sanjay Singh V/s. U.P.PSC, 2007 3 SCC 720.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the system of moderation of raw marks in the written papers obtained by candidates is not required to be applied in examinations where all the papers are compulsory for the candidates and there is no choice of selection of subjects, for example, the Judicial Service Examination. He submits in the same vein that the system of moderation of raw marks, and the system of scaling of marks, have to be applied with respect to the examinations where the candidates have the option to select some of the subjects. He submits that these two concepts are based on the latest researches and studies in the filed of education and selection processes to ensure level-playing field for the candidates. He relies on the following reported judgments:-