Competitive Exams | Can't Hold A Question To Be Wrong As Long As It Can Be Understood By Candidates & Can Be Answered: Allahabad HC

While acknowledging the argument that a few questions could be better framed, the Court said that this fact alone does not invalidate them.

“Unless it is shown that the question is wrong or the formulation of question is such that the candidate could not have understood the question or answered it, we would not be justified in interfering with the question itself,” a bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Syed Qamar Hasan Rizvi observed.

The Court also noted that in the matter of public examination, where large-scale recruitment is undertaken some play in the joints would have to be conceded to the examining authority.

The case in brief

These observations were made by the bench while dismissing an appeal moved by one Nitesh Kumar Singh Yadav challenging the rejection of his writ petition.

His petition laid a challenge to the answers to questions 78 and 93 in booklet series 'F' regarding the recruitment of 8085 Revenue Lekhpal posts by the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Service Selection Commission. The examination was conducted on July 31, 2022, following an advertisement issued by the Commission in January 2022.

The two questions challenged were as follows:

78. Which of the following scheme of Indian government proposes to prevent the migration of youth from the rural areas to urban areas?

• (A)PURA (B) NSAP (C) SAGY (D) SGRY

93. Under the Kanya Vidya Dhan Scheme, girls of financially weak families who are high school passout are provided with _______ one time amount for pursuing higher education.

• (A)10000 (B) 15000 (C) 30000 (D) None of these

According to the commission, the correct answer to question no.78 is '(A) PURA' (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas). However, the counsel for the appellants submitted that PURA, although a scheme launched with the object of preventing the migration of youths from rural areas to urban areas, but the scheme itself was discontinued in the financial year 2015- 16.

It was, therefore, submitted that PURA was not a subsisting scheme on the date the question was posed and, in such circumstances, answer '(A)' could not have been treated to be a correct answer.

It was further submitted that none of the other three options were correct either and therefore, question no.78 in booklet series 'F' ought to have been cancelled and even marks ought to have been awarded to those who had attempted the question as per the prevalent practice.

So far as question no.93 is concerned, the counsel for the appellant submitted that Kanya Vidya Dhan Yojana is a scheme launched by the Government to provide one-time financial assistance only to those girls, who have passed intermediate girls and belong to financially weak families.

It was submitted that question no.93 was incorrectly formulated, since Kanya Vidya Dhan Yojana was not admissible to high school pass out (as stated in the question) and, therefore, answer '(C)', relied upon by the commission, was incorrect.

On the other hand, the Counsel for the respondent submitted that regarding question no. 78, the precise question posed to the candidate was as to which of the four specified schemes proposes to prevent migration of youths from rural areas to urban areas and there was no stipulation in the question that any of the four schemes are either existing on the date of question or the question gives an inference that the schemes are presently in vogue.

So far as the answer to question no.93 is concerned, it was argued that the precise question posed is as to what is the amount which is provided to a girl belonging to a financially weak family for pursuing higher education.

High Court's observations

Against the backdrop of these submissions, the Court noted that so far as question no.78 is concerned, the question was as to which of the 4 schemes proposes to prevent migration of youths from rural areas to urban areas and the appellant admitted that out of those four schemes, the only scheme which proposes to prevent migration of youths from rural areas to urban areas is PURA.

The Court further observed that merely because no funds are released in the scheme after the financial year 2015-16 or even if the scheme is not presently operational it would not mean that question no.78 becomes wrong.

In view of this, the Court concluded that the correct answer to question no.78, in the manner the question is posed, would be PURA.

Regarding question 93, the Court noted that merely because in the modified scheme, launched later, high school pass-out students are omitted and only passing of an intermediate or equivalent examination is mentioned, it cannot be said that question no.93 has become wrong.

Consequently, noting that in the matter of public examination where large-scale recruitment are undertaken some play in the joints would have to be conceded to the examining authority, the Court dismissed the appeal.

Case title - Nitesh Kumar Singh Yadav vs. State Of U P And 2 Others 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 213

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 213

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