'No Deliberate Low Marking': Supreme Court Dismisses Pleas Challenging Evaluations In Rajasthan Civil Judges Exam

The bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was hearing the pleas challenging the Rajasthan Civil Judge Cadre, 2024 for alleged arbitrary markings in the English Essay Papers.

On the last hearing, the Court had asked the Rajasthan High Court to furnish a tabulated chart indicating the scores of two Law papers obtained by those candidates who got low scores (0-15) in the English essay paper.

Today, after examining the answer sheets for the English Essay Exam, the Court observed : 

“Based on the nature of answers in the English essay, we have no manner of doubt that there is any substance in the allegation that was a deliberate low marking in the English Essay paper.”

During perusal of the answer sheets, the bench noted that the answers in some of the cases were not satisfactory. In one instance CJI pointed, how in one essay, Justice Krishna Iyer was wrongly quoted : 

“Who is Justice Krishnaswamy? Maybe Justice Krishna Iyer became Krishnaswamy!

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for Rajasthan High Court submitted that the English Exam contained 3 questions which were graded separately. 1st question was graded by a District Judge Level Officer while the 2nd and 3rd questions were graded a two sets of English Professors from Government Colleges to negate any possibilities of disproportionate markings. 

Finding no substantial grounds to intervene in the present case, the court recorded :

“Based on the tabulated position disclosed before the court, we find no statistical discrepancies in the nature that would warrant the intervention of this Court under Article 32 …..the marking of the essays do not suffer from any infirmities of the sort that would cast doubt on the nature of the overall assessment of the essay answer sheets. We therefore decline to entertain these petitions.” 

The Court Clarified that any petitioner who has any individual grievance save and except by this order, was at liberty to move the Rajasthan High Court u/a 226.

As per the pleas, the common contention is that while the candidates had performed well overall, it is alleged that they have been marked unjustly low in the range 0 to 15 marks out 50 in the English Essay Writing Paper, thus denying them fair eligibility for the final interview stage.

Earlier, when the petitions were mentioned for early listing, CJI had orally remarked the Court would reverse the process if any irregularities were found, regardless of the completion of the interviews.

The Rajasthan High Court (the “Recruiting Authority”), in compliance with the Rajasthan Judicial Services Rules, 2010, opened 222 vacancies for direct recruitment to the Civil Judge Cadre. The selection process follows a rigorous three-stage process: a Preliminary Examination, a Main Examination, and a Viva Voce (Interview). Out of approximately 3,000 candidates who qualified for the Main Examination held on August 31 and September 1, 2024, only 638 candidates progressed to the interview stage.

Counsel for the petitioners : Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Sr Adv; Ms A Sumathi, Adv; Ms Ila Sheel, AOR; Talha Abdul Rahman, AOR; Mr. Saket Sikri, Adv.; Mr. Vikalp Mudgal, AOR

Case : MS SONAL GUPTA AND OTHERS Vs. REGISTRAR GENERAL RAJASHTAN HIGH COURT JODHPUR AND ANOTHER | Diary Number 47205/2024 and connected matters