W.A.Nos.724 & 760 of 2022

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

Judgement Reserved on

: 10..11..2022

Judgement Pronounced on

: 01..11..2022

Coram

The Honourable Mr. Justice P.N.PRAKASH

and

The Honourable Mr. Justice RMT.TEEKAA RAMAN

Writ Appeal No.724 of 2022

and

Writ Appeal No.760 of 2022 & C.M.P.No.5329 of 2022

W.A.No.724 of 2022:

E.Ranjith

..... Appellant

-Versus-

1.The Tamilnadu Public Service Commission,

Rep. by its Chairman,

TNPSC Road, VOC Nagar,

Park Town, Chennai 600003.

2.The Controller of Examinations,

Tamilnadu Public Service Commission,

TNPSC Road, VOC Nagar,

Park Town, Chennai 600003.

.....

Respondents

Appeal filed Clause 15 of The Letters Patent against the order dated

31.01.2022 made in W.P.No.16481 of 2020.

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W.A.Nos.724 & 760 of 2022

W.A.No.760 of 2022:

Dr.S.Sibichakkaravarthy

..... Appellant

-Versus-

1.The Chairman,

Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission,

TNPSC Road, VOC Nagar,

Park Town, Chennai 600003.

2.The Secretary,

Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission,

TNPSC Road, VOC Nagar,

Park Town, Chennai 600003.

3.The Controller of Examination,

Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission,

TNPSC Road, VOC Nagar,

Park Town, Chennai 600003.

.....

Respondents

Appeal filed Clause 15 of The Letters Patent against the order dated

31.01.2022 made in W.P.No.35219 of 2019.

For Appellant(s)

: Mr.K.S.Viswanathan for

Mr.G.Ilamurugu for Appellant in

Writ Appeal No.724 of 2022

Mr.S.Thanka Sivan for Appellant

in Writ Appeal No.760 of 2022

For Respondent(s)

: Mr.P.S.Raman, Senior Counsel for

Mr.V.Govardhanan & Mr.I.Abrar

Md. Abdullah for TNPSC for

Respondents 1 and 2 in Writ

Appeal No.724 of 2022 and

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W.A.Nos.724 & 760 of 2022

For Appellant(s)

: Mr.K.S.Viswanathan for

Mr.G.Ilamurugu for Appellant in

Writ Appeal No.724 of 2022

Respondents 1 to 3 in Writ Appeal

No.760 of 2022

COMMON JUDGEMENT

P.N.PRAKASH.J.,

Dr.S.Sibichakkaravarthy (Register No.010153202) and E.Ranjith

(Register No.170124177) wrote the competitive examination (Descriptive

Type) for recruitment to the posts included in the Combined Civil Services

Examination-I (Group-I Services) conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public

Service Commission [(for short, “the TNPSC”] in 2019 and were declared

unsuccessful. Challenging their non-selection, they preferred Writ Petitions

in W.P.Nos.35219 of 2019 and 16481 of 2020 respectively, in which, they

principally contended that their answer scripts were improperly evaluated

and, therefore, they have been unjustly denied selection and appointment to

the posts included in CCS-I (Group-I Services). Those two writ petitions

were heard by a learned single Judge and during the course of the hearing,

they were permitted to peruse their respective answer scripts and they were

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W.A.Nos.724 & 760 of 2022

also provided with the marks that were awarded to them in Group I – Papers

I, II and III (General Studies).

2. At this juncture, it may be pertinent to state here that, under the

Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Regulations, every answer script

would be examined by two independent examiners with dummy numbers

and the candidate would be awarded the average of the marks given by the

two examiners. Where, for a Paper, if the difference in the total marks

awarded by the two examiners exceed 15%, that paper would be sent for

third evaluation. In this examination, it appears that 9441 candidates cleared

the Preliminary Examination and were selected for the Main Written

Examination.

3. It was the contention of the Writ Petitioners before the learned

single Judge that the 3^rd valuation should have been done as the marks given

by the two examiners for certain questions exceeded 15% and in some cases,

the difference is very wide. In order to illustrate his grievance,

Dr.S.S