Is Principle Of Rounding Off Permissible In Open Competition ? Supreme Court Issues Notice

Is the principle of rounding off permissible in the open competition ? The Supreme Court issued notice in a Special Leave Petition which raised this issue.

A candidate for the post of TGT on batch wise basis under ex­serviceman category had approached the Himachal Pradesh High Court seeking a declaration that the his percentage in graduation i.e. 44.8 be considered as 45% for the purpose of selection. The High Court disposed of the petition directing the authorities to consider the petitioner. [However, the impugned judgment does not discuss anything regarding permissibility of such rounding off]

In appeal before the Apex Court, the State points out the candidate was not qualified to participate in the selection process for the reason that 45% marks for undergraduate course is the minimum qualifying marks for participating in the process. It relied on the judgment in Orissa Public Service Commn.& Anr vs Rupashree Chowdhary (2011) 8 SCC 108.

Taking note of this, the bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar stayed the High Court judgment.

In Rupashree, the Orissa High Court allowed a candidate to appear in an interview of Orissa Judicial Service Examination. As per Rule 24 of the Orissa Superior Judicial Service and Orissa Judicial Service Rules, 2007, candidates who have secured not less than 45% of the marks in aggregate & not less than minimum of 33% of marks in each paper in the written examination should be called for viva-voce test. In appeal, the Apex Court noted that there is no power provided in the statute/Rules permitting any such rounding off or giving grace marks so as to bring up a candidate to the minimum requirement. "In our considered opinion, no such rounding off or relaxation was permissible. The Rules are statutory in nature and no dilution or amendment to such Rules is permissible or possible by adding some words to the said statutory rules for giving the benefit of rounding off or relax", it was observed.

Case: State of Himachal Pradesh vs Rajesh Kumar | SLP(C) 17914/2022

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