Bar & Bench: New Delhi: Wednesday,
July 27, 2016.
The Supreme
Court of India today disposed of the petitions relating to the Delhi Judicial
Service Exam of 2014. The top court also issued a number of directions to
improve the existing examination system.
The matter
was heard by a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Rohinton Fali Nariman. Senior
Advocate Sanjay Hegde and advocate Prashant Bhushan assisted by advocate
Sidharth K Garg, represented the petitioners while Additional Solicitor General
Maninder Singh and advocate ADN Rao appeared for the Delhi High Court.
When the
matter was last heard, Prashant Bhushan had suggested that guidelines be framed
by the Supreme Court for conducting such exams so that such controversies don’t
arise in future.
He had
also recommended the following:
(1) In the
Preliminary exams, the OMR sheets be ordered to be filled up in pen and not
pencil
(2) In the
preliminary exam result, the names of candidate be mentioned and not omitted as
done in the new 2015 notification by the respondent
(3) In checking of
the mains papers, the procedure laid down by the 3 Supreme Court judgment be
followed, in letter and spirit. The 3 judgments are Sanjay Singh [(2007) 3 SCC
720], Prashant Ramesh Chakkarwar [(2013) 12 SCC 489] and Sujasha Mukherji [2015
AIR (SCW) 1582]
(4) The candidates be
provided a copy of their answer scripts under the RTI and as per two Supreme
Court judgments
(5) Arbitrary
absolute cut offs for interview qualification be replaced with ranking method
(6) The DJS exam be
held every year like the UPSC exam.
The Court had
asked the Delhi High Court to respond to these suggestions.
Today, the
Delhi High Court told the Supreme Court that they have accepted two of the
suggestions (1) and (4). Accordingly, OMR sheets will, henceforth, have to be
filled up using pens and not pencil. Further, candidates will be entitled to
get a photocopy of their answer scripts under the RTI Act.
The Court
further directed the Delhi High Court to comply with suggestion (2) publishing
the names of candidates who have qualified the preliminary examination.
The case had
come to the Supreme Court in August last year when the Centre for PIL filed a
petition alleging arbitrary valuation, and selection of candidates in the Delhi
Judicial Service Exam, 2014. The court had issued notice in the case on August
4.
On December
14 that year, the Court had 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
DJS, 2014.
Justice Reddy
had submitted a report to the court in sealed cover on March 4, 2016. In his report, the former Supreme Court judge
had concluded that he did not find anything unfair in the evaluation.
However,
after re-valuation, 12 more candidates stood qualified for interview. The Court
had accepted this report and directed the Delhi High Court to act pursuant to
the report. 12 more candidates were then called for interview. 11 of them had
attended the interview and all of them had qualified for DJS.
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