The court affirmed that the authority has discretion in establishing typing speed evaluation methods in recruitment processes, provided such methods are properly communicated and uniformly applied, rejecting claims for a retrospective application of prior evaluation methods.

JUDGMENT

1. Present petition has been filed by the Petitioners seeking a declaration that the Petitioners be considered as passed having secured more than 40 Words per Minute (wpm) in the Typing/Skill Test conducted on 21.01.2020 and set aside the result declared on 14.02.2020 qua the Petitioners. A direction is also sought to the Respondent to call the Petitioners to participate in the interviews.

2. The facts to the extent they are undisputed between the parties are that a Combined Recruitment Process was initiated for various Ministerial posts in the office of District & Sessions Judge (HQ), Delhi as well as for analogous posts in the Family Courts, under a Centralized Recruitment Committee. A Vacancy Notice/Advertisement for 771 Cadre posts (Senior Personal Assistant-41, Personal Assistant-555, Junior Judicial Assistant-161, Data Entry Operator-14) in the Establishment of Delhi District Courts and Family Courts was published on 14.09.2019. Educational qualifications prescribed for the post of JJA was `Graduate' with typing speed of not less than 40 wpm, on computer. Relevant part of the Advertisement is as under:

3. As per the Scheme of Examination the Recruitment process was to be held in four phases. Tier-I was Objective test for 120 marks; Tier-II included a Skill test (typing test); Tier-III prescribed a Descriptive test and Tier-IV was Interview. Syllabus of Objective test pertained to General English and Comprehension, General Knowledge and General Intelligence and format was Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ). Candidates who scored 50% marks (General Category) i.e. 60 marks out of 120 and 45% marks (Reserved Category) i.e. 54 marks out of 120 in the Objective MCQ test were eligible to be called for skill test, which was a typing test requiring speed of 40 wpm and was qualifying in nature.

4. Tier-III was a Descriptive test and those candidates who qualified the skill test were to be called for Descriptive test and 100 marks were earmarked for it. Minimum passing marks for General Category Candidates were 50% i.e. 50 marks out of 100 and 45% for Reserved Category. The last phase of the process was Tier-IV, which was Interview of 30 marks and the minimum passing marks for General Category Candidates were 12 and for the Reserved Category Candidates were 10. It was mentioned in the Advertisement that the District & Sessions Judge (HQ), Delhi reserved the right to modify or dispense with any stage of the recruitment process, if deemed appropriate, especially in view of the number of applications received and as permissible under Delhi District Court (Establishment) Rules, 2012.

5. In the Meeting dated 06.01.2020, Recruitment Committee decided to dispense with the Descriptive test and the decision was approved by the District & Sessions Judge (HQ). Total 24,173 number of candidates including the Petitioners applied `Online' for the post of JJA. The Objective/MCQ test was conducted on 29.11.2019 in two shifts. Out of total 24,173 candidates, 4,471 candidates including the Petitioners were declared qualified and were called to appear in the skill/typing test on 21.01.2020, at different online examination Centres.

6. In the skill test, which was qualifying in nature, total 3,775 candidates