UNION OF INDIA Vs. ANIL SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is preferred against order dtd. 19/9/2019 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal Jaipur Bench, Jaipur (hereinafter referred to as "Tribunal") by which the Tribunal has allowed the Original Application filed by respondent no.1, quashing and setting aside the order passed by the official respondents. Official respondents upon receipt of a complaint by the respondent no.2, re-framed answer keys in respect of some of the questions and thereafter reevaluated the answers of the candidates including respondent- Anil Sharma and Krishan Swaroop Sharma which resulted in exclusion of Anil Sharma from the panel of select list and inclusion of Krishan Swaroop Sharma.

(2.) The factual backdrop which relate to filing of O.A. by Anil Sharma before the Tribunal was that Anil Sharma was selected for the post of Junior Engineer (E) in a Limited Departmental Competitive Examination held on 29/10/2010. As he was declared selected, he joined on the higher post after completion of training vide order dtd. 31/1/2012.

(3.) The challenge was based mainly on the ground that the exercise of re-evaluation done by the authorities was not only without there being any provision of re-evaluation under the scheme of examination but was otherwise erroneous, arbitrary and unfair. According to official respondents and the private respondent-Krishan Swaroop Sharma, when complaint was made, the review committee found that many key answers were either incorrect or were otherwise erroneous. This exercise was bona fide undertaken to remove the irregularity found in the process of selection and it was not a case of re-evaluation of the answers on the same set of answer keys. In some and substance, the case of official respondents was that it was essentially an exercise of course correction as the committee of experts found that many keys answer were either incorrect or were erroneous creating confusion.