Civil Services Exam 2023: Delhi High Court Dismisses Plea Seeking 10% Reduction In CSAT Cut-Off

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea challenging the order of Central Administrative Tribunal which refused to order reduction in cut off for Civil Services Aptitude Test 2023 from 33% to 23%.

Referring to a number of precedents including Ranjan Kumar & Ors. v. State of Bihar & Ors., (2014), the division bench of Justice V. Kameshwar Rao and Justice Anoop Kumar Mendriatta said,

“The Tribunal had rightly observed that the said judgments restrain judicial bodies/fora from interfering with competitive selection processes merely on the ground that some of the candidates may have questioned the selection process or the syllabus of the examination, even though they had voluntarily participated in the examination.”

Petitioners, candidates of the 2023 Civil Services Examination, alleged that questions asked in the exam were out of syllabus and above the prescribed difficulty level.

It is not for the Court to examine or question the wisdom of the panel of experts that has prepared the question paper and re-assess the relative merits of the questions, Court said.

The bench further said that it cannot sit in appeal against the considered decision of such a panel of academic experts, unless such decision is demonstrated to be “manifestly arbitrary, malafide or illegal”. Such is not the case here, it added.

These observations came in response to the plea filed against the dismissal order of CAT wherein it was alleged that the difficulty level of the questions was similar to those asked in CAT and IIT JEE examinations. They sought a direction the Commission “to reduce the cut off for Paper II CSAT from 33% to 23%.”

The petitioners argued that as per the UPSC syllabus, CSAT is designed to test the general aptitude of candidates, and they are expected to possess the ability to solve basic questions relating to comprehension, logical reasoning, etc., at the Class X level.

“Going against the syllabus provided, UPSC has come up with a paper which cannot be cleared by anyone who possesses only basic knowledge of mathematics (Class X level) as the difficulty level of the questions is similar to that of questions asked in CAT examination and IIT JEE examination,” the plea alleged.

UPSC justified the qualifying marks of 33%, having been prescribed in accordance with rules governing the examination and said petitioners cannot seek the change of the cut off percentage for their convenience.

The plea before the CAT was dismissed stating that, “We are also conscious of the confines of our powers and jurisdiction and have no doubt that we are neither authorized nor qualified to sit on the judgment over the wisdom of the academic experts who have prepared the question paper which is the which is the subject of this OA, i.e., CSAT Paper-II of the Civil Services Examination-2023.”

The Court noted that out of 15 petitioners all were not from humanities background, hence “the case set up by the petitioners that they did not had a level playing field in the CSAT Exam, cannot be accepted.”

On the contention that some questions were of Class XI & XII level, the Court said that, “suffice it to state, the decision as to what questions need to be included in the paper, and what should be the nature and complexion of such questions, necessarily remains in the exclusive domain of the panel of academic experts.”

Such a decision cannot be assailed before us in judicial review, only on the ground that some questions were out of syllabus, added the Court.

Stating that there is no merit in the case, the Court dismissed the plea.

Case Title: Siddharth Mishra & Ors. v. UPSC

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 766

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