Delhi Judicial Services: Four questions to be deleted, new date for main exam [Read judgment]

A Division Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Najmi Waziri have directed for a re-calculation of scores of the Delhi Judicial Services Examination (DJS) of 2015..The order was passed on Monday after it was revealed that four questions had more than one correct answer as an option..The Court has also directed for the deletion of these four contentious questions. Additionally, the Registry has been directed to fix the cut-off marks for the recomputed preliminary examinations along with a new list of selected candidates for the main examinations..A new date will also be announced for the main exams..In its 23-page order, the Bench has discussed the scope and ambit of judicial review when a multiple choice question paper and answer key are under the scanner..“Only when we are convinced that the answer key is “demonstrably wrong” in the opinion of a reasonable body of persons well-versed with the subject, will it be permissible to exercise power of judicial review. Albeit, in cases where the answer key is indeed incorrect or more than one key to the answer could be correct, the candidates should not be penalized for answers at variance with the key.”.Elaborating on the incorrect questions and possible answers, the Delhi High Court further said that the new dates for the exams ought to be in a manner ensuring that the newly added eligible candidates are given sufficient time to prepare for the mains written examination..The judgment of the Court came in two petitions moved against the exams. While one plea filed by Manish Gupta challenged the answer key on grounds of it being ‘ambiguous’, the other petition filed by Sumit Kumar said that there were ‘fundamental errors’ in some of the questions posed in the preliminary exam paper, held in December 2015..Kumar’s petition had pointed out one of the errors pertained to a question on the meaning of the word ‘risque’. According to the answer key, the correct answer was “slightly risky”, and not “slightly improper”, which is the common usage of the word..Read the order below.