The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations had the power and authority to nullify questions and change answers based on Section 9(1)(a) of the Act and the Rules of 2014.

Bansi Lal Bhat, J.

1. These Letters Patent Appeals arise out of a common judgment dated 30th September, 2014, passed by the learned Writ Court in OWP No. 1063/2014 and connected petitions dismissing the same on the ground that the contentions of the petitioners contrary to the opinion of the three Subject Experts, that the questions were absurd or incorrect, could not be entertained. The Common Entrance Test 2014 (CET 2014) was conducted by the Jammu & Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (for brevity 'the Board') on 7th and 8th of June, 2014. The answer key was published on the website of the Board on 8th July, 2014. Liberty was given to the candidates to make representations in respect of any error in the answer key within two days from the date of such publication. According to the Board, 276 representations were received from the candidates against the answer key. Same were referred to the Expert Committees alongwith material relied upon by the candidates in support of their individual representations.

2. The Expert Committees considered the representations and recommended nullifications of 17 questions and change in answer of two questions, one each in Biology and Chemistry. The Board published the revised answer key on its website. The result was, accordingly, notified on the basis of evaluation of merit of candidates as per the revised key.

3. The writ petitioners, including the appellants herein, assailed the decision taken by the Board in regard to nullification of 17 questions and change in answer of two questions on the ground that the decision was taken without competence and authority and that one of the answers to nullified questions was correct and its nullification was not justified. It was urged before the learned Writ Court that nullification of questions has deprived them of the marks they would have earned had the evaluation been made on the basis of the original answer key. The writ petitioners, in their individual petitions claimed to have correctly answered different questions set out in the writ petitions. It was further urged before the learned Writ Court that if the Board had adhered to the original answer key the writ petitioners would have been selected. It was also urged that by nullifying the aforementioned questions, the Board has created a situation, where merit has been converted into demerit, to the detriment of the writ petitioners without affording them an opportunity of being heard.

4. Next it was urged before the learned Writ Court, that in terms of the guidelines in force on the date for initiation of process to conduct CET of 2014, there was no provision for nullification of a question and in case none of the answers provided under revised key were found to be correct, one point was to be awarded to all the candidates and where more than one answers were found to be correct, a candidate, indicating either of such answers, was to get credit for having answered the question correctly. It was further urged that the decision taken by the Board was unwarranted and suffered from lack of jurisdiction on the ground that even in case of nullified questions one of the answers in the answer key was correct and thus there was no scope for changing the answers. It was urged that action taken on the basis of Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations Rules, 2014 (for brevity 'Rules') notified vide SRO 168 dated 10th June, 2014, was without jurisdiction as the Rules were not in vogue on the date selection process was initiated and the same could not have been applied to CET 2014.

5. The stand taken by the respondents before the learned Writ Court was that the Board has adhered to the guidelines and the decision taken did not warrant interference. It was pleaded that the Information Brochure for CET 2014, issued by the Board, provided for notification of answer key immediately after conducting of the test, to enable the candidates to make representation about corre