2024 Supreme(P&H) 733
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH
LISA GILL, SUKHVINDER KAUR, JJ.
Sukhnoor Singh – Petitioner
Versus
Haryana Public Service Commission & Anr. – Respondents
CWP NO.8510 of 2024(0&M) AND CWP NO. 13729 of 2024
Decided On : 10-07-2024
Advocates Appeared:
Mr. R.K.Malik, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Varun Veer Chauhan, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 10748 of 2024.
Mr. Jai Vir Yadav, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Aman Gautam, Advocate, Mr. Somdutt, Sharma, Advocate and Mr. Parshant Gupta, Advocate for petitioners in CWP No. 10795 of 2024.
Mr. B.S. Patwalia, Advocate and Mr. Abhishek Masih, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-10873-2024.
Mr. Pratham Sethi, Advocate and w Ms. Tejaswini, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 8510 of 2024
Mr. Babbar Bhan, Advocate and Mr. Tushar Ghera, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 8890 of 2024.
Mr. Rahul Soi, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 13729 of 2024.
Mr. Kashish Aggarwal, Advocate and Mr. Raghav Chadha, Advocate for petitioners in CWP No. 9174 of 2024.
Mr. J.D.Rana, Advocate and Mr. Prashant Kapila, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 8890 of 2024.
Mr. Akshay Chadha, Advocate and Ms. Taanvi Dhull, Advocate for petitioner(s) in CWP Nos. 10051 and 11257 of 2024.
Mr. Sushil Jain, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 10154 of 2024.
Mr. Rajesh Arora, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 10180 of 2024.
Mr. Pardhuman Garg, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 10895 of 2024.
Mr. Birinder Pal, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-10898-2024.
Mr. Udit Garg, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-10902-2024.
Mr. Monit Pal Singh, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 9179 of 2024.
Mr. Prashant Manchanda, Advocate, Mr. Ferry Sofat, Advocate and Ms. Nancy Shah, Advocate for petitioners in CWP No. 9273 of 2024.
Mr. Gurpreet Singh, Advocate and Mr. Bhupinder Banga, Advocate; For the Petitioners in CWP-13376-2024.
Mr. Arav Gupta, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 9772 of 2024.
Mr. B.S. Walia, Advocate and Mr. Deep Inder Singh Walia, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 9854 of 2024.
Mr. Balvinder Sangwan, Advocate Mr. Vivek Sheoran, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 9908 of 2024.
Mr. Inderjeet Singh, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 11088 of 2025(through VC).
Ms. Varda, Advocate for petitioner in CWP No. 10992 of 2024.
Mr. T.S.Chauhan, Advocate with Mr. Abhijeet Pratap, Advocate and Mr. Karanpreet Singh, Advocate, for petitioner in CWP-10042-2024.
Mr. Manoj Tanwar, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-11984-2024.
Mr. Ajit Singh Natt, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-11423-2024.
Mr. Pannod Chauhan, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-12874-2024.
Mr. Gurpreet Singh, Advocate and Mr. Vikas Sheel Verma, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-13552- 2024.
Mr. Gurinder Pal Singh, Advocate; For the Petitioner in CWP-12790-2024.
Mr. Brijesh Kumar, Advocate and Mr. Rohit Karwasra, Advocate; For the Petitioner in CWP-11287-2024.
Mr. Ritvik Garg, Advocate and Mr. Ritik Gupta, Advocate; For the Petitioner in CWP-13223-2024.
Mr. Tarun Kumar, Advocate for petitioner in CWP-14992-2024.
Mr. Sanjay Kaushal, Sr. Advocate with Ms.Supriya Garg, Advocate, Ms. Pawelpreet Kaur, Advocate and Mr. Ankit Rana, Ms.Ojaswini Gagneja, Advocate for Respondent-High Court (in all writ petitions except in CWP Nos. 12954 & 12874 of 2024).
Mr. Akshay Bhan, Senior Advocate with Ms. Shubreet Kaur Saron, Advocate and Mr. Shaurya Khanna, Advocate for Respondent - High Court (in all writ petitions except in CWP Nos. 12790 & 13223 of 2024).
Mr. Balvinder Sangwan, Advocate for Respondent-HPSC (in all writ petitions).
Mr. Raman Sharma, Addl. AG, Haryana and Mr. Sukhd
The court upheld the final Answer Key and the Expert Panel's recommendations, emphasizing the integrity of the examination process and the lack of procedural irregularities in evaluating objections.
Headnote:(A) Haryana Civil Services (Judicial Branch) Examination 2023-24 - Preliminary Examination - Challenge to the final Answer Key and results declared on 09.04.2024 - Petitioners argue incorrectness of the Answer Key and lack of opportunity for cross-objections - Expert Panel's recommendations accepted by the Selection Committee - Court finds no glaring errors in the Expert Panel's evaluation and upholds the final Answer Key. (Paras 10-37)
(B) Examination Process - Principles of natural justice - No provision for re-evaluation or cross-objections in the rules - Court emphasizes the need for finality in examination results and the integrity of the selection process. (Paras 20-32)
(C) Reservation Policy - Benefit of reservation for Ex-servicemen applicable only at the final selection stage, not during preliminary examination. (Para 32)
JUDGMENT
Lisa Gill, J.
CWP No. 8510 of 2024 and all other 31 writ petitions, detail of which is given at the foot of the judgment, are taken up together for consideration and adjudication together at request and with consent of learned counsel for parties.
2. Prayer in all the writ petitions is for setting aside/revision of the preliminary examination result declared on 09.04.2024 for Haryana Civil Services (Judicial Branch) (for short 'HCS') Examination 2023-24 conducted pursuant to advertisement dated 01.01.2024, primarily on the ground of Answer Key-provisional and/or final, being incorrect.
3. In this bunch of writ petitions, there is a set of petitioners who had submitted objections pursuant to publication of the provisional Answer Key on 07.03.2024 on the objection web portal of HPSC and another set of writ petitions, wherein petitioners had been satisfied with the provisional Answer Key thus had not submitted any objections thereto, but are aggrieved of the final Answer Key along with result published on 09.04.2024 on the website of this Court with most of them filing objections/representations qua the Final Answer Key.
4. Basic facts necessary for adjudication of these writ petitions are being extracted from CWP No. 8510 of 2024 for the sake of convenience with reference to the specific questions, Answer Key of which has been challenged, being taken separately from the other writ petitions and as tabulated in the following paras.
5. Advertisement dated 01.01.2024 was issued seeking applications for 174 posts (129 actual vacancies + 45 anticipated vacancies) of Civil Judge (Jr. Division) in the cadre of HCS (Judicial Branch). Category-wise bifurcation of the posts is detailed in Clause 5 of the advertisement and is not being reproduced for the sake of brevity. It is provided in the advertisement that examination shall be conducted in three stages i.e.,(a) preliminary stage (for screening only), (b) main written examination, which shall consist of five written papers and (c) viva voice. It is provided in Clause 9 (A) of the Advertisement that preliminary examination shall be of objective type with multiple choice questions. The OMR sheets would be scanned by the computer with no provision of rechecking, revaluation of OMR Sheets. Details regarding preliminary examination as provided in Clause 9 (A) read as under: -
"A) Preliminary Examination (for screening only).
(i) The Preliminary Examination shall be of objective type with multiple-choice questions as distinguished from the Main Written Examination which shall be of subjective/narrative type. The OMR Sheets (Answer Sheets) will be scanned by the Computer. So there is no provision of re-checking/re- evaluation of these OMR Sheets.
(ii) The question paper for Preliminary Examination shall be of two hours duration. It shall consist of 125 questions and each question shall carry 04 marks and for every wrong answer 0.8 mark i.e. 20% or say l/5th mark shall be deducted.
(iii) Each question shall have five options (A, B, C, D and E). If a candidate is attempting a question, he shall have to darken the appropriate circle A, B, C or D and if not attempting a question then, he shall have to darken 'E' Circle. If none of the five circles is darkened, one-fifth (0.8 mark) mark shall be deducted.
(iv) Any candidate not darkening any of the five circles in more than 10% questions (13 questions) shall be disqualified.
(v) The objective type questions with multiple-choice answers for the Preliminary Examination shall be from the syllabus for the Main Examination. The candidate shall be expected to have a general and basic over view of the main subjects and also the ability to answer questions on current events of national and international importance, Indian legal and constitutional history and governance. The candidate shall also be tested for his analytical skills, reasoning and aptitude. The standard of the questions shall be of Law Graduate level.
(vi) The object of the Preliminary Exa
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