JUDGMENT :

1. This case is taken up through video conferencing.

2. The present writ petition has been filed for quashing and setting aside the provisional result published on 01.11.2021 with respect to the Preliminary Test of Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Examination, 2021 (hereinafter to be referred as ‘Examination, 2021’) in pursuance of Advertisement No.01/2021 on the ground that there are discrepancies in answer of question nos.3, 7, 9, 49, 67 and 77 of Paper-1 (Set-B) and question nos.53 and 54 of Paper 2 (Set-B). Further prayer has been made for issuance of direction upon the respondents to constitute an independent qualified expert committee of concerned subjects so that answer key relating to question nos.3, 7, 9, 49, 67 and 77 of Paper 1 (Set-B) and question nos.53 and 54 of Paper 2 (Set-B) may be placed for correction. The petitioner has also prayed for issuance of direction upon the respondent nos.2 and 3 to publish results afresh on the basis of corrected answers to be provided by the independent qualified expert committee of concerned subjects and to fix a new date for filling up the forms of mains examination.

3. The factual background of the case, as stated in the writ petition, is that Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC), Ranchi-respondent no.2 published an advertisement being Advertisement No.01/2021 for total 252 vacancies of different services/cadres notified by various departments of Government of Jharkhand for the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. The petitioner filled online application form on 14.03.2021 for appearing in the preliminary examination and, accordingly, appeared in the said examination on 19.09.2021. He was provided Set-B in both Paper-1 and Paper-2 examination. The JPSC published model answer key on its official website on 21.09.2021, inviting objections from the candidates till 28.09.2021. The petitioner uploaded his objection to the answer key of question nos. 3, 9 and 67 of Paper 1 (Set B) and question nos.53 and 54 of Paper 2 (Set B) on 27.09.2021 with evidences i.e. NCERT, Bharti Bhavan books, official websites of national & international agencies and report(s) of Government of India & Government of Jharkhand. The petitioner in support of his correct answers also shared the links of all sources. Thereafter, the JPSC published final revised answer key in its official website on 08.10.2021, erroneously changing the answers of question nos.7 and 77 which were correct in the answer key published on 21.09.2021 in Paper-1 of Set-B. Again on 10.10.2021, the JPSC published another correction to its final revised model answer key through press release, whereby it changed the answer of question no.80 in paper 2 Set-B. Thereafter, the JPSC published provisional result of Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Examination (PT) on 01.11.2021.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the cut off marks for unreserved category candidate is 260 marks and, as per self evaluation of the petitioner based on the carbon copy of OMR answer sheet against the final answer key published by JPSC, he is short of 6 marks, which equates 3 correct answers only. It is further submitted that the result of PT examination is fit to be set aside, as there is patent and apparent error in the answer key published by the JPSC particularly with respect to 8 questions of papers-1 and 2 of Set-B which were not corrected despite sufficient evidences provided by the petitioner to the contrary and the same were made the basis of publishing provisional result on 01.11.2021 due to which meritorious candidates including the petitioner have been suffering. It is also submitted that a qualified expert committee should be constituted for correction of erroneous answer key of 8 questions on the basis of the evidences produced by the petitioner.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioner has provided a chart of questions