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Court emphasized that perusal of the original answer copies was necessary to assess the disputes raised in the present batch of writ petitions
In a significant order, the Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) to upload the written examination and interview marks of all candidates involved in a batch of writ petitions challenging the evaluation process of the Provincial Civil Services-Judicial (PCS-J) examination-2022. The court also ordered the original answer sheets of the petitioners to be presented in sealed covers for judicial scrutiny.
A division bench comprising Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Donadi Ramesh issued these directions on December 6, 2024, while hearing multiple writ petitions led by petitioner Shravan Pandey. The grievances raised by counsel appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Syed Farman Ahmad Naqvi, along with Advocate Shashwat Anand, included the awarding of zero or incorrect marks for answers that petitioners claim were correct and allegations of unauthorized tampering of originally assigned marks.
Court noted that pleadings in most petitions were complete, except for six cases where rejoinder affidavits were pending. It granted a five-day period for filing these affidavits to ensure all parties are heard comprehensively. The bench emphasized that access to the original answer copies was necessary to assess the disputes raised.
Furthermore, the court instructed Sri Nisheeth Yadav, counsel for the UPPSC, to ensure the marks of all petitioners are uploaded and made visible on the Commission's website by December 7, 2024. It also directed that the batch of writ petitions be prioritized for hearing on December 12, 2024, following the disposal of fresh cases.
It the case of lead petitioner Shravan Pandey that he took the U.P. Judicial Service Civil Judge (Junior Division) (Mains) Examination 2022, with results announced on August 30, 2023. He was unhappy with his scores, particularly in the English paper where he received only 47 out of 200 marks. Seeking transparency, he filed an RTI request and obtained his marks for six papers. Upon inspecting the answer sheets, he noticed discrepancies: the handwriting in the English paper did not match his own, and several pages of the Hindi paper were torn. Dissatisfied with these findings, he demanded further scrutiny of the answer sheets under RTI.
Case Title: Shravan Pandey vs. State Of Up And 2 Others and Connected Matters
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