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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision:- 09.01.2025 Bhuvan Goel ...Petitioner(s)

Versus Punjab and Haryana High Court, Sector-1, Chandigarh through its Registrar and another.

...Respondent(s)

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SHEEL NAGU, CHIEF JUSTICE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE SUDHIR SINGH Present:- Mr. Nayandeep Rana, Advocate, for the petitioner.

Mr. Sanjeev Sharma, Senior Advocate, with Ms. Shubreet Kaur Saron, Advocate, for respondent No. 1 - High Court. Mr. Balvinder Sangwan, Advocate, for respondent No. 2 - HPSC.

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SHEEL NAGU, C.J. (ORAL)

1. The petitioner, who is an aspirant for appointment as Civil Judge (Entry Level) having applied pursuant to Advertisement No. 1/2024 dated 01.01.2024 (Annexure P-1) issued by the Haryana Public Service Commission, is aggrieved that despite having secured 513.50 marks out of 900 marks in the written (main) examination, petitioner was awarded marks, but could secure as low as 29.75 marks out of 200 marks in viva-voce.

2. The ground that has been taken in support of non-appointment is that, petitioner despite doing his best in the interview could not succeed.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on a decision of the Constitution Bench of Apex Court in Ajay Hasia and others Vs Khalid Mujib Sehravardi and others, (1981) 1 Supreme Court Cases 722 (Annexure P-4). The relevant paragraphs 17, 18, 19 and 20 of the said decision are reproduced as under:-

“18. The second ground of challenge questioned the validity of viva voce examination as a permissible test for selection of candidates for admissions to a college. The contention of the petitioners under this ground of challenge was that viva voce examination does not afford a proper criterion for assessment of the suitability of the candidates for admission and it is a highly subjective and impressionistic test where the result is likely to be influenced by many uncertain and imponderable factors such as predilections and prejudices of the interviewer, his attitudes and approaches, his preconceived notions and idiosyncrasies and it is also capable of abuse because it leaves scope for discrimination, manipulation and nepotism which can remain undetected under the cover of an interview and moreover it is not possible to assess the capacity and calibre of a candidate in the course of an interview lasting only for a few minutes and, therefore, selections made on the basis of oral interview must be regarded as arbitrary and hence violative of Article 14. Now this criticism cannot be said to be wholly unfounded and it reflects a point of view which has certainly some validity. We may quote the following passage from the book on Public Administration in Theory and Practice by M.P. Sharma which voices a far and balanced criticism of the oral interview method:

“The oral test or the interview has been much criticised on the ground of its subjectivity and uncertainty. Different interviewers have their own notions of good personality. For some, it consists more in attractive physical appearance and dress rather than anything else, and with them the breezy and shiny type of candidate scores highly while the rough uncut diamonds may go unappreciated. The atmosphere of the interview is artificial and prevents some candidates from appearing at their best. Its duration is short, the few questions of the hit-or-miss type, which are put, may fail to reveal the real worth of the candidate. It has been said that God takes a whole lifetime to judge a man's worth while interviewers have to do it in a quarter of an hour. Even at its best, the common sort of interview reveals but the superficial aspects of the candidate's personality like appearance, speaking power, and general address. Deeper traits of leadership, tact, forcefulness, etc. go largely undetected. The interview is often in the nature of desultory conversation. Marking differs greatly from examiner to examiner. An analysis of the interview results show that the mar