Supreme Court: In the case relating to Punjab Civil Services (Judicial) appointments*, where only 28 people have been recruited against a total of 75 posts, the bench of SK Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy, JJ has directed that as a sample, the papers in the two subjects i.e. Criminal Law and Punjabi, of the first 10 candidates, who did not clear the examination, be sent for re-checking.
The Court further directed that since the problem relates to these two subjects, the papers of the first 10 candidates who failed to obtain the minimum marks in those subjects, also be sent for re-checking. There may, however, be overlapping in this scenario.
It said,
“We propose to pass an order to satisfy our judicial conscious in the given scenario where only 28 people have been recruited in pursuance to an examination process where 75 vacancies existed.”
The Criminal Law papers be sent to Justice A.K. Sikri, former Supreme Court judge and Punjabi papers to Justice Surinder Singh Saron, former Acting Chief Justice, Punjab & Haryana High Court. The papers are to be sent within 2 weeks.
The Court said that the aforesaid process and the marks that will be assigned will give an impression of the broad trend whether the overall marking has been strict beyond expected levels or the assessment is fine and whether there is a requirement of re-marking of all papers once again in these two subjects excluding of course those people who already stand recruited. The Court will also consider whether in such a scenario any other appropriate action like grant of grace marks could meet the ends of justice.
The Court asked the Punjab and Haryana High Court to take necessary steps to send the requisite papers and compute the result and submit it to the Court along with previous marks.
The matter has been listed for further directions on 17.12.2020.
[Navneet Kaur Dhaliwal v. The Registrar General of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 902, order dated 03.11.2020]
*Ed. Note: The order does not specify the name of the examination but merely mentions “an examination process”. The inference that the matter deals with the Punjab Civil Services (Judicial) appointments has been drawn from the information available in the order.
