DJS 2023: Delhi High Court Rejects Plea To Issue Fresh List For Viva Voce

The Delhi High Court has recently dismissed a petition seeking issuance of fresh or revised list of shortlisted candidates for viva voce for Delhi Judicial Service Examination, 2023.

A division bench comprising Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur dismissed the plea filed by a candidate- Shobhin Bali, while refusing to interfere with the results declared for the Mains examination.

While the Court said that Bali was able to demonstrate that there was an answer other than the one given in the answer-key which could have been more appropriate, the same was not sufficient to upset the entire result.

“We have been informed that there were a total of 698 candidates who were shortlisted for the Mains examination pursuant to the final revised result declared on 21.03.2024. Out of these candidates, 153 have been shortlisted for being called for the viva- voce. Merely, because this Court may form a prima facie opinion that another answer may have been more appropriate to the questions, the entire result and the selection process should not be upset,” the Court said.

It added that the Court cannot take the role of an Examination Committee, which is the primary decision maker.

“We have also been informed that the petitioner is not only four marks short of the cut-off for the viva-voce, but is the sole candidate to have challenged the impugned questions,” the Court observed.

The Bench noted that due to judicial orders, the result for the preliminary examination had to be revised and more candidates had to be allowed to participate in the Mains examination.

It added that the petitioner candidate, having participated in the Mains examination without any protest on the increased number of candidates shortlisted for the same, could not be allowed to challenge the same.

“As far as the objection of the petitioner that in the Mains examination only subjective questions could be asked is concerned, we do not find any prohibition in the respondent prescribing for an objective question to be asked in the said examination,” the Court said.

Title: SHOBHIN BALI v. REGISTRAR GENERAL DELHI HIGH COURT

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 198

Click here to read order