Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 16: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) directed the Public Service Commission to decide the representation of aggrieved candidates with regard to revised answer key of the preliminary examinations of J&K Combined Competitive Examinations 2023.
“The representations along with supporting material of the candidates who were aggrieved about the answer key of the preliminary examination of J&K Combined Competitive Examination 2023 shall be considered with afresh and decision thereof shall be conveyed to the candidates by March 20”, CAT directed.
The tribunal said that the direction has been passed in the interest of justice given the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and it is subject to the outcome of the main case.
The CAT on revising the answer keys by the PSC said that once, vide notification dated October 27, 2023, the experts had given their opinion, there was no occasion for the PSC to have yet again issued notification dated November 18, 2023 after the changing the answer keys as there was no provision in the Business Rules of the PSC or the Rules for Conduct of Examinations that there could be a review of the final answer key.
The reply of PSC states that after the earlier notification declaring the result of the preliminary examination, several representations were received by the PSC regarding certain purported factual errors in the notified final answer key of one of the paper and decided to re-refer the concern so raised to the experts once again for scrutiny and after a detailed scrutiny of the concerns raised by the candidates, the Commission accepted certain inadvertent typographical errors made in the earlier opinion rendered by them for which they expressed their deep regret and communicated the changes required to be made in the final answer key.
It was said that with the revision of the result and the modification so made, a total of 167 candidates including the aggrieved candidates who were earlier declared to have qualified in the main examination as per result notification dated October 27, 2023, were falling below the revised cut off point and were ousted from the revised result.
Referring the Apex court on the issue, the tribunal said that the Apex court had held that the courts should refrain from examining the correctness of the answer and answer keys and come to a conclusion different from that of the expert committee which prepared such answers or answer keys.
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