Court orders inclusion of candidate in selection process after finding errors in GPSC's examination conduct and answer key authentication.
In a significant ruling, the Gujarat High Court, presided over by Justice Nirzar S. Desai, has directed the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) to revise its provisional results for a competitive examination due to errors in the answer key. The decision came after a petition filed by Arati Damjibhai Rangpariya, who challenged the authenticity and correctness of the answer key for certain questions in the preliminary examination for the post of Sales Tax Inspector.
The court found that the GPSC had relied on unauthenticated materials downloaded from the internet to frame questions, specifically citing a 1915 edition of Kautilya's "Arthashastra" translated by R. Shamasastry. The court criticized the GPSC for not having a written policy to authenticate such materials and emphasized that questions in competitive exams should be based on widely recognized and credible sources like NCERT or GCERT textbooks.
The petitioner, who narrowly missed the cut-off marks for the mains examination, argued that her answers were correct based on government-approved textbooks. The court agreed, stating that the benefit of doubt in cases of unauthenticated or outdated sources must go to the candidate.
Justice Desai's ruling mandates the GPSC to add the disputed marks to Rangpariya's score and reconsider her eligibility for further stages of the recruitment process. The court underscored the importance of fairness and transparency in competitive examinations, stating that candidates have a legitimate expectation that questions will be derived from authenticated materials.
The judgment is expected to impact the selection process, ensuring that examination bodies adhere to stricter standards for question setting, thereby maintaining the integrity of competitive examinations.
Bottom Line :
Examination law - High Court has the jurisdiction to interfere with the correctness of the answer key in exceptional cases where the question itself is based on unauthenticated material or where the answer provided by the candidate can also be considered correct based on credible sources like Government textbooks.
Statutory provision(s):
- State Tax Inspector Class III, Competitive Examination Rules, 2018
- Relevant case laws and judgments referred to in the judgment.
Arati Damjibhai Rangpariya v. State of Gujarat, (Gujarat) : Law Finder Doc id # 2961831
