IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that the correctness of examination answer keys must be based on widely accepted academic standards, and any demonstrably erroneous answers must be rectified to ensure fairness in the selection process.

JUDGMENT :

HON’BLE SUBHASH VIDYARTHI

1. By means of the instant writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged validity of selections made on the post of Post Graduate Teachers (English) for the year 2013, held in pursuance of Advertisement No.2-2/2013 dated 04.01.2013 issued by the Secondary Education Services Selection Board. An alternative prayer has been made for revision of the final answer key and issuance of select list on the basis thereof.

2. Briefly stated, facts of the case are that the Secondary Education Selection Service Board, Uttar Pradesh (herein referred to as ‘the Selection Board’) had issued a notification dated 04.01.2013 for making selections for appointments to various posts of Lecturers, including 97 Posts of Lecturers (English) in boys category and 13 posts of Lecturer (English) in girls category. The petitioner had applied and participated in the written examination held on 22.02.2015 in furtherance of the aforesaid advertisement.

3. The dispute involved in the present writ petition relates to question Nos. 59, 81 and 107 of ‘A’ Series question paper of English, which were as follows:-

“Question No.59. Shakespeare’s The tempest is a -

(A) Tragedy

(B) Comedy

(C) Tragic Comedy

(D) History play

Question No.81. Thomas hardy started his literary career as -

(A) Novelist

(B) Short story writer

(C) Poet

(D) Dramatist

Question No.107. Fill in the blank with suitable preposition:-Some trains run _ _ _ electricity

(A) from

(B) on

(C) with

(D) by”

4. The Selection Board published a provisional answer key wherein the correct answer of question No.59 was shown as option ‘C -Tragic Comedy’, the correct answer of question No.81 was shown as option ‘C – Poet’ and correct answer of question No.107 was shown as option ‘D - By’.

5. After publication of the provisional answer key, some candidates filed objections against the answers of nine questions and thereafter, the Selection Board published a revised answer key dated 20.5.2015 wherein it revised answers of question Nos. 36, 59 and 81. Further question Nos.1, 28, 46, 48, 67 and 117 (of ‘A’ series question paper) were marked “F” indicating that the questions either contained more than one correct answer or no correct answer and, therefore, all the candidates were awarded full marks for the aforesaid questions. This resulted in serious prejudice to the petitioner and some other candidates and, therefore, the petitioner filed Writ A No.45977 of 2015 in this court along with another petitioner.

6. Some other writ petitions were also filed with the same grievance. One of such writ petitions bearing Writ A No.37051 of 2015; Atender Kumar and another Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and another, was disposed of by means of an order dated 09.07.2015 directing the Selection Board to take a decision on the objections filed by the petitioners. Writ A No.45977 of 2013 was also disposed of by means of an order dated 31.08.2015, permitting the petitioners to file objections before the Selection Board and the Selection Board was directed to take a decision on the same expeditiously, after receiving a report from the expert body.

7. In furtherance of the aforesaid order passed by this Court, the Selection Board referred sought an expert’s opinion from the University of Allahabad. The petitioner had filed detailed objections before the Selection Board on 08.09.2015.

8. After receiving the report of the expert body, the Selection Board published the second revised answer key on 20.04.2016, wherein apart from the questions, whose answers had been challenged, revised answers were issued in respect of some other questions also. The Selection Board had marked “F” in front of three new questions No. 23, 30 and 46 in the second revised answer key and it revised the answer of question No.117, which was not in dispute. Answers of question Nos. 28, 36, 48, 59 and 81 given in the first revised answer key remain unaltered.

9. The petitioner contends that the answers mentione