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Synopsis

A division bench of the Delhi High Court recently set aside a single judge bench order in connection with Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), 2020. Court observed that "judges are not and cannot be experts in all fields, and the opinion of experts cannot be supplanted by a Court overstepping its jurisdiction".

The bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad further said that "It would not be prudent for a Court to conduct itself like an expert in a subject alien to it when an entire body of experts has arrived at a contradictory stand".

The single judge, on July 5, 2021, had ordered for 1 extra mark to be granted to candidates of the FMGE-2020 Screening Test in a plea filed by the Association of MD Physicians, an association consisting of Indian citizens who hold degrees in medicine from foreign universities, claiming that there was a patently erroneous question in the examination paper.

The National Board of Examination (NBE) moved an appeal against this order contending that it itself had facilitated a post-exam review of all the questions and found that there was no technically incorrect question. 

The division bench observed, "When there are conflicting views, it is incumbent upon the Court to bow down to the opinion of the experts which, in this case, was the Expert Committee constituted by the NBE".

Court said that if the error in the question is manifest and palpable, and does not require any elaborate argument, then the Writ court may choose to intervene. "However, where the errors do not show their heads without a detailed and elaborate probe into the opinions of experts, the Court must stay its hands", Court added. 

Court further said that in examination matters, a candidate has to demonstrate that the key answers are "patently wrong on the face of it" and the single judge was erroneous in calling for a short affidavit from the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India to decide the correctness of the concerned question. 

The results of the FMGE Screening Test were announced and representations were made to the NBE alleging that one question was technically incorrect. Pursuant to this, the NBE constituted a five-member Expert Committee that conducted a post-exam review of all the questions. The Expert Committee concluded that the said question was technically correct, and it was then clarified that the result declared was the final result. 

Taking note of this fact, the division bench said, "It is also not for the Courts to interfere in such matters, except in absolutely rare and exceptional cases, especially in view of the fact that the instant examination pertains to the practice of medicine – a field that requires the exercise of utmost care and caution".

Therefore, opining that the Single Judge had clearly exceeded its jurisdiction by interfering in the examination and awarding one mark to all candidates who had chosen the incorrect answer, Court allowed the instant appeal and set aside the impugned single bench order. 

Case Title: National Board of Examination v.  Association of MD Physicians