The main legal point established is that it would be unfair to penalize candidates for mistakes in the answer key, and the court has the authority to direct re-assessment and re-evaluation of results to ensure fairness.

V.K. Jain, J.

The petitioner in W.P(C) No.5074/2013 as well as the petitioners in W.P(C) No. 5424/2013, appeared in the entrance examination conducted by the respondent no.1 – University of Delhi for admission to its Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) Course for the academic year 2013-2014. The result of the said test was declared on 19.7.2013. The answer key in respect of all the test, book sets was also displayed on the website of the university on the same date. The case of the petitioners before this Court is that the answers contained in the answer key in respect of 9 numbers of questions were patently wrong answers, as a result of which, the correct answers given by them were marked “wrong answers” and they were also given negative marking on the ground that they had given wrong answers to the questions whereas in fact the answers given by them were correct. The petitioner – Mr. Manoviraj Singh in W.P(C) No. 5074/2013 was given overall rank 1021 and the category rank of 1005. According to him, if he is given credit for the correct answers and the negative marks wrongly given to him are excluded, his overall rank would be 709 and the category rank would be 699.

2. There are as many as 11 petitioners in W.P(C) No. 5424/2013 and they also have similar grievances. According to them, had they been given credit for the correct answers and not been given the negative marks for the answers which were taken as “wrong answers” despite actually being the correct answers, their ranks would have been much higher. Being aggrieved from denial of admission, the petitioners are before this Court seeking review of their result and directions to the university to admit them to the aforesaid course.

The petitioner no.2 in W.P(C) No.5424/2013 has taken admission in B.R. Ambedkar College, though her preference was for Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies and her case is that if the correct answers are taken into consideration, on the basis of her revised rank, she would be entitled to admission in Saheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies. The case of petitioner no.11 in W.P(C) 5424/2013 is that though during the second round of counselling he was offered admission, since the admission was not in the college of his choice, he did not accept the same. According to him, had he been given credit for the correct marks and negative marks were not given to him, his rank would have been much higher and he would have got admission in a college of his choice.

3. The writ petitions have been contested by the respondent – University of Delhi. It is stated in the counter affidavit of the university that the answers contained in the answer key were in fact correct answers except in respect of Q. Nos. 22 and 23, in respect of which there was an interchange of answers, meaning thereby that the answer for Q.No.22 was taken as answer for Q.No.23 and vice-versa. It is also the case of the university that the admissions having been closed after third round of counseling on 31.7.2013 and filling up of the seats, no fresh admission at this stage can be made. It is, however, admitted by the university that after closure of admission as many as 40 seats in various colleges have fallen vacant – 40 seats in General Category, 3 seats in OBC category and 2 seats in ST category.

4. As noted earlier, the respondent – university has conceded that the answers contained in the answer key in respect of Q.No.22 and 23 were wrong. Despite that, the marks have been awarded to the candidates on the basis of wrong answers to the aforesaid questions. This according to the learned counsel for the university happened because the mistake was noted at a later date and according to the university, this would have made no change in the overall rank of the candidates. In my view, the plea taken by the university has no merit. It is quite possible that one or more candidates, chose a correct option in respect of both the Q.Nos.22 and 23. In their case, since the answers con