3 min readNew DelhiNov 7, 2015 03:13 AM IST
First published on: Nov 7, 2015 at 03:13 AM IST
Supreme Court (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)The Supreme Court on Friday sought replies from the 15 successful candidates of the Delhi Judicial Services (DJS) exam — 2014, noting they should also be heard since the court has decided to order reevaluation of the answer sheets of all 659 candidates to judge the credibility of the test. The DJS — 2014 was mired in controversy after at least 65 sitting judicial officers flunked the exam while children of some sitting Delhi High Court judges were declared successful.
“Principle of natural justice demands that the successful students be heard as we have decided to reevaluate all answer scripts…Parity is the test,” said a bench led by Justice Dipak Misra, while posting the matter for hearing on December 9. It added that “anybody who stands on the same footing should not be discriminated”.
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The responses from the 15 successful candidates were sought after Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for the Delhi High Court, submitted that they ought to be heard since they would be affected by the court orders. He also said that the institution’s reputation should not be harmed. On Monday, the court had ordered re-assessment of the answer sheets by a former Supreme Court judge after observing that the high court administration may not have applied rationalisation of marks so as to have uniformity in the marking scheme. It said “fairness” required reevaluation by an independent judge, whose name would be declared later.
The court is hearing a PIL filed by NGO CPIL, which had asked for reevaluation of the answer sheets and prescribed guidelines for a fair assessment. In August, the bench had issued a notice to the Delhi High Court Registrar General and said final recruitment would be subject to the outcome of the petition.
The DJS Main exam was held in October last year, and the results were declared on May 1. Of the 659 candidates who appeared for the exam, only 15 — just over 2 per cent — were declared successful.
As first reported by The Indian Express, Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda had in June sought scrutiny by the Delhi HC Chief Justice into accusations of “corruption, favouritism and nepotism” in the exam. The topper and another successful candidate are daughters of sitting judges of the Delhi High Court, which conducted the exam to fill 80 vacancies of district and sessions judges in Delhi.
The records showed at least 65 sitting judicial officers from 11 states had failed the exam, raising more questions about the evaluation process. These included 10 toppers who had held first or second rank in their states as well as some who had cleared the judicial services exams in more than one state.
Supreme Court (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)
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