Haryana Judicial Sevice Mains Exam: Supreme Court tasks Justice AK Sikri to look into answer scripts

The Supreme Court today ordered that former Supreme Court judge, Justice AK Sikri will look into whether the evaluation in the mains examination of Haryana Judicial Service 2017 for selection of Civil Judge (Junior Division) is acceptable or not..The order was passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna in a petition challenging the entire selection process and evaluation method adopted in Main (Written) Examination of Civil Judge (Junior Division) in the Haryana Civil Service (Judicial Branch), 2017 on the grounds of being unreasonable, arbitrary and also malafide and hence, in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution..The Supreme Court also ordered that the Punjab & Haryana High Court should provide all answer scripts to Justice AK Sikri so that he can complete the task..The Court had stayed the results of the exam earlier this week while ordering notice to the Punjab and Haryana High Court and directing the personal presence of the High Court’s Registrar General..A total 14,301 students took the preliminary examination held on December 22, 2018, for a total 107 vacancies, of which 75 were for the General Category candidates. 1,282 students out of 14,301, were declared successful in preliminary examination and took the main examination held in March 2019..The result of this Main Examination was declared on April 11, 2019. Only 9 students (inclusive of all categories) were selected for the interview for a total of 107 vacancies. Thus, a total of 99.298% of the students failed and only 0.702% managed to pass..The petitioner states that the ostensible explanation for selecting only 9 students, even though normally three times the number of seats notified are called for interview test, was that no other candidate could score a minimum of 33% in all five subjects as well as 50 per cent aggregate for general category and 45 per cent for reserved categories..Among other concerns, the petitioners point out that the required number of candidates to be called for viva voice was clearly mentioned as thrice the number of advertised posts including bracketed candidates..The petition states that at least 20-30 candidates, who appeared for the Mains Exam but not selected for the interview, are those who have already cleared judicial examinations of other States and most of them are sitting judges in their respective states..Further, many of them are toppers in the judicial exams of their respective states or toppers and gold medallists in their respective law colleges. Several candidates are LL.M. holders from reputed institutions..The petitioners have submitted that the results of the Main Exam show that there is a serious problem with the evaluation method of the exam, which is being conducted for selecting the judicial officers in Haryana. Unless this evaluation method or selection process for HCS is re-examined to make it more rational and reasonable one of the most important factors responsible for huge pendency or delay in justice i.e. lack of a sufficient number of judicial officers will not be tackled..Apart from a prayer to quash this year’s exam result, the petitioners had also prayed for revaluation of main exam paper of the petitioners by an independent expert committee. Further, the petitioners have sought directions/guidelines for complying with the evaluation methodology approved by the Supreme Court and procedure of relief in contravention of the same..In 2017, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had scrapped the preliminary examination on account of a question paper leak..[Read Order]