Justice (Retd.) PV Reddy to re-examine answer sheets of Delhi Judicial Service Exam, 2014

The Supreme Court today appointed former Supreme Court judge and former Chairman of Law Commission, Justice P Venkatarama Reddy to revaluate the answer sheets of those candidates who had cleared the preliminary examination of the Delhi Judicial Service, 2014 (DJS)..The order was passed by a Division Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and PC Pant in two petitions alleging irregularities in the selection process..The DJS exam was held in July last year, pursuant to a notification that was issued after a period of three years. 80 vacancies were advertised. A total of 9,033 candidates appeared for the Prelims. Out of these, 659 students cleared the Prelims and became eligible to write the Mains. When the results were published in May this year, it turned out that only 15 candidates had cleared the exam, and were asked to appear for the interview. All the 15 candidates who appeared for the interview were eventually selected..Advocate Prashant Bhushan initially addressed a letter to Delhi’s Chief Justice, G Rohini expressing certain reservations about the exam and evaluation methods. Bhushan’s letter also underlined the abysmally low number of successful candidates, and requested a fair re-evaluation. The matter took a political turn when Bhushan made the letter public. Soon thereafter, Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda wrote a letter to Justice Rohini and personally requested her to look into the allegations surrounding the exam..Thereafter, petitions were filed in the Supreme Court alleging arbitrary valuation and selection in the DJS. During the hearing of the petitions, the Bench came up with the proposal to revalue the answer sheets of those candidates who had cleared the preliminary exam. The same was accepted by the petitioners. The Court then asked Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh to take instructions from the Delhi High Court on whether it was agreeable to the same..Maninder Singh today informed the Supreme Court that the High Court has no objection to the same whereupon the Supreme Court proceeded to appoint Justice Reddy to recheck the exam sheets of those who qualified the prelims..The revaluation would be done on the same criteria based on which 15 candidates were selected. The selection and seniority of the 15 candidates who have been selected will remain unaffected by any new appointment made after revaluation..The Court has directed Justice Reddy to commence his task on January 10 and complete it within 6 weeks. The Court also directed the High Court to provide a room for Justice Reddy to undertake his task..The matter will now be heard in the second week of March, 2016..Image courtesy: Website of Supreme Court of India