Punjab and Haryana High Court paves way for Punjab PCS Mains, slams ‘numb’ last minute plea

Justice Namit Kumar has heard the matter on March 27.

Justice Kumar remarked that a person who is sitting numb and approaches the court at a belated stage is not entitled to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of this court and added that in academic matters, the scope of judicial interference is also very limited.

Dispute over revised answer keys

The litigation involved 23 connected petitions, primarily led by Karanbeer Singh and others, concerning the recruitment for 337 posts within the Punjab Civil Services and allied branches.

Following the preliminary examination held on December 7, 2025, the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) released revised answer keys in January. The petitioners, many of whom missed the cut-off by a mere two marks (equivalent to one question), sought a certiorari to quash these keys.

They alleged that several questions in Paper-I (general studies) and Paper-II (CSAT) were vague or contained patently incorrect answers that the PPSC failed to rectify. Specifically, they challenged the commission’s decision to retain certain answers for questions no 1, 13, 73, 79, 94, and 99 of Set-A.

Following this, many candidates filed a plea challenging the validity of the answer keys and sought re-evaluation of the results. In February, a public notice directed the shortlisted candidates to complete their online application forms for the mains examination by March 8.

On March 7, the high court heard the matter and requested the vice chancellor of Punjab University to constitute a three-member independent panel of subject experts to review the dispute, which submitted its report to the court, unanimously upholding the PPSC’s revised answer keys for all six questions.

Court’s findings

• The facts are not in dispute that the petitioners fell short of 02 or 04 marks for gaining eligibility to appear in the main examination.
• There is no allegation against the expert panel, which was first formed by the commission, and thereafter, the second Expert Panel was formed by the Panjab University in pursuance of the directions issued by this court.
• The contention raised by the counsel for the petitioners, qua deletion of at least 40 per cent qualifying marks in Paper-II (CSAT) by granting 10 marks in that exam, is that the same assertion cannot be countenanced, as 10 additional marks for four wrong questions (4 x 2.5 marks) have been awarded to each candidate by the commission.

• At this stage, after passing of a period of twenty days from the publication of the answer key, this court is not in a position to do anything as the main examination for the posts of PCS (Executive Branch) and other allied posts is scheduled for April 1 to 10.
• The questions for which counsel for the petitioner(s) has raised concern have already been considered by the subject experts constituted by the commission after examining the objections raised by the candidates.
• The precise claim of the petitioner at this belated stage cannot be adjudicated upon in terms of the facts and circumstances of this case.