PCS-J 2022 | UPPSC Accepts 'Error' In Preparation Of Written Examination Merit List Of 50 Candidates Before Allahabad HC
Before the Allahabad High Court, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) has acknowledged an error in preparing the merit list for the written examination of 50 PCS-J (Provincial Civil Services - Judicial) 2022 candidates.
In view of the said submission, the High Court, on Monday, sought a personal affidavit of the Chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) explaining the change in marks that will have to be made in the copies of 50 candidates whose copies were admittedly interchanged and marked.
The development occurred in a writ petition filed by a candidate who appeared in the U.P. Judicial Service Civil Judge (Junior Division) (Mains) Examination 2022 in May 2023.
Essentially, dissatisfied with his marks, which were made public in November 2023, the petitioner (Shravan Pandey) applied under the Right to Information Act, and he found that he received only 47 marks out of 200 in the English paper.
Subsequently, the petitioner applied for six of his answer sheets. Upon perusing the answer sheets, the petitioner found that the handwriting on the English paper differed from all other papers and answers in his Hindi paper were scored off in the last 3-4 pages.
Hearing the matter last month, a vacation bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Manish Kumar Nigam directed UPPSC to examine the petitioner's answer sheets and compare his handwriting.
Thereafter, the Secretary of UPPSC filed his affidavit before the High Court stating that 25 candidates' answer sheets for the English paper had been interchanged with 25 other candidates, resulting in erroneous marks for the candidates, including the petitioner (Pandey).
Noting this submission, the bench, comprising Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Anish Kumar Gupta, recorded in its order:
“According to the UPPSC, the checklist of Master Fake Code pasted on two bundles of the answer books for the paper English got interchanged such that in the preparation of the merit list of the written examination the marks of one set of 25 candidates got interchanged with the marks of another set of 25 candidates. While that mistake has been owned by the Commission, the compliance affidavit does not indicate to any extent the consequent change in the merit list of the written examination that has been caused by such mistake.”
Further, the division bench observed that changing marks would exclude candidates who have already been interviewed and include candidates who were erroneously awarded fewer marks. It also observed that UPPSC would have to prepare a new merit list.
Not appreciating the timelines provided by the UPPSC for preparing the final merit list, the Court granted 5 days' time to the Chairman of the UPPSC to file his personal affidavit detailing the change in marks, the details of the candidates who have been interviewed and will be affected by the change in marks, and the details of the candidates who will be eligible for interview after the correction in marks is made.
The Chairman UPPSC has to file his personal affidavit regarding the following issues:
(i) The change of marks that have to be corrected in view of the error noted in the inquiry report dated 22.06.2024;
(ii) Full details of candidates who were ineligible to be called for interview, once the correction is made, together with the marks originally awarded and the corrected marks;
(iii) Full details of the candidates together with the marks originally awarded and the corrected marks who ought to have been called for interview.
(iv) Exact details if any other mistake was noted with respect to any /all answer books (paperwise of all six papers of UP PCS - J Examination 2022) in which Master Fake Code may have been interchanged or any other error of like nature occurred with respect thereto.
The matter will be heard next on July 8.