Punjab & Haryana High Court Issues Notice On Plea Challenging Deletion Of Question In Civil Judge Exam

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Punjab government, the state Public Service Commission and the high court Registrar Recruitment to respond to a petition challenging the deletion of a question from the paper of the preliminary examination held for Punjab Civil Judge (Junior Division Cum Judicial Magistrate) posts. The petition also challenges the answer of another question.

The division bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Vikram Aggarwal asked the respondents to file a reply within three weeks. "Replication thereto, if any, be filed within a further period of two weeks," the court said in the order, while listing the matter for hearing on May 29.

The notice was issued by the court on a writ petition filed by two candidates who appeared in the preliminary examination on January 03. Registrar Recruitment later issued the proposed answer keys and invited objections. The court was told that the petitioners along with other candidates filed objections in respect of question number 1 and question number 69 on the online portal of the official website. 

Stating that the authorities correctly changed the answer of question number 1 on the basis of the objections, the plea alleges that the objection in respect of question number 69 was not considered. The petition further states that when the preliminary examination was announced last month, it was also declared that question number 1 has been deleted. 

Questions under challenge

Q 1. Which of the following sections have been inserted in the Indian Penal Code,1860 by The Criminal law Act, 2013?

1. Section 376A
2. Section 376B
3. Sections 166A,166B,354C
4. All of the above

The proposed answer key uploaded by the high court mentioned the answer to question no.1 as "D".  After entertaining objections filed by the petitioners, the respondents rightly changed the answer from "D" to "C", according to the petitioners. However, the petitioners contend that in the final answer key, Question no.1 of Code A was deleted without any reasoning.

According to the petitioners, Sections 166A, 166B, and 354C were inserted into the Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC 1860) by the Criminal Law Amendment 2013, while Sections 376A and 376B were "substituted not inserted" in the IPC 1860. Therefore, the answer "C" to question 1 of Code A would be correct, and there was no need to delete it, the plea argues.

Q 69. Which one of the following questions may be forbidden by the court:

1. Indecent
2. Scandalous
3. Intended to insult
4. To test veracity

Answers -

(a) 1 and 2

(b) 2 and 3

(c) 3 and 4

(d) 1, 2 and 3

According to the petitioners, upon perusal of Sections 151 and 152 of the Indian Evidence Act, it is clear that there is no ambiguity in the question. The answer "D" given in the final answer key is incorrect, and the correct answer would be "A", according to the plea. 

The petitioners have said that they are falling short of the cut-off by only a few marks and if the answer to question no.1 is restored and question no.69 is corrected, the total gain in marks would push their score above the cut-off and undoubtedly qualify them for the next stage of the examination.

Senior Advocate Sumeet Goel, Advocate Pradyuman Garg and Advocate Paramvir Parmar represented the petitioners. 

Case Title- Navjot Kaur and Anr. v. State of Punjab and Ors.

Click Here To Read/Download Order