The Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission on Wednesday told the High Court that by allowing 429 candidates as ordered by its single bench, the commission has to allow 2300 more candidates to participate in selection process of KAS.
On December 30 last, a single bench of High Court had directed the JKPSC to permit 429 candidates who the Commission had debarred from appearing in the KAS mains exam 2016 after revising the answer key of the preliminary test.
The Commission has challenged the court’s decision in favor of the 429 candidates before the division bench.
“We have to permit 2300 more candidates if we allow the 429 candidates to participate in the selection process,” Advocate Azhar-ul- Amin representing PSC told the court.
The PSC counsel was advancing arguments before a division bench of justices Janak Raj Kotwal and Sanjeev Kumar.
“Basic premise of the judgment is wrong. If we allow 429 candidates, the cut off merit will reduce to 260.892 marks and the Commission has to take all the candidates who have secured marks above 260 and the number of these candidates is about 2300,” Azhar said.
Vide its first notification; the PSC had shortlisted 6925 candidates for the KAS mains exam at a cut off of 270.477 while the cut off merit came to 277.275 after it reframed the list by revising the answer key.
After reframing it, 429 candidates who had figured in the list did not figure in the revised list.
While hearing the appeal, the bench made certain observations in response to the arguments by the PSC counsel. “If you allow 429 candidates, 25 times candidates to be shortlisted for mains exam will go slightly higher to 26 times, which is not so complicated an issue and is no refraction of the rule,” the bench observed.
“We are meeting a peculiar situation created by peculiar set of things,” the bench observed.
The court asked Azhar if the PSC has revealed the answer key after it conducted the exam. “For establishing transparency, have you published the key? Was it put in public domain,” the bench asked the PSC counsel.
“What would happen if the candidates would not have approached PSC for revealing the answer key? The entire exam was bound to be quashed if the selection was made on the basis of wrong key,” the court said.
The court listed the case on February 22 for hearing further arguments subject to the approval of Chief Justice for constitution of the bench.
Senior counsel Z A Shah would argue on behalf of the candidates who have been allowed by the single bench to appear in the exam.
The PSC vide notification no. PSC/EXM/2016/52 dated 18-06-2016 advertised 277 posts in Junior Scale of J&K Administrative Service, J&K Police (Gazetted) Service and J&K Accounts (Gazetted) Service and applications were invited for admission to the KAS (Preliminary) Examination.
Following the preliminary examination, the PSC vide the Notification No. PSC/Exam/2017/22 dated 23.04.2017 declared 6925 out of 47000 candidates to have qualified for KAS Mains Examination. The cut-off mark was declared as 270.477 out of aggregate of 450 marks.
However, after considering representations of candidates on wrong answer key, the Commission issued a revised list with cut off merit 277.275 as a result of which 429 candidates who were figuring in un-revised list were excluded.
Aggrieved of the order, the candidates approached High Court in two separate petitions and the court disposed of the petitions directing the commission to treat the petitions as representations and pass speaking orders after the commission made such statement before the court.
The Commission however issued a fresh notification bearing No. PSC/Exam/2017/49 dated 25.08.2017 asking the candidates who had been selected vide revised list to fill up the forms for KAS (Mains) Exam and also deemed the 429 candidates dropped in the revised selected list as ineligible for KAS (Mains) exam.
Aggrieved candidates approached court again and submitted that non-inclusion of petitioners was based on re-evaluation which was challenged on the ground of being against the rules.
Rule 31 and Rule 33 enunciated in J&K Public Service Commission (Conduct of Examinations) “Rules, 2005 prohibit re-evaluation of the answer scripts of the candidates who have appeared in J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination,” they submitted.
Though the Commission allowed the 429 candidates to appear in the exam, it filed an appeal against the single bench order.