The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission to re-evaluate the answer sheets of those who appeared in the preliminary examinations for positions in the Provincial Civil Service that the commission conducted in 2017, the Hindustan Times reported. The court passed the judgment on March 30 after 11 petitions were filed, challenging 14 questions of the general studies paper. The court directed the panel to re-evaluate 12 of those questions.
The petitioners said their answers to a number of questions were more appropriate than the ones mentioned in the answer key that the panel later published. They argued that if they had been awarded marks for those questions, they would have qualified for the main examination.
Justices Pankaj Mithal and Saral Srivastava scrutinised the questions, and said the scope of judicial review in the case was limited and that it could order a re-evaluation if it could be demonstrated clearly that there were mistakes in the way the questions were framed, Live Law reported.
The commission conducted the examination on September 24, 2017, to fill 677 posts of the Upper Subordinate Services. The panel uploaded the answer key on its website in November 2017 and called for objections. The results of the preliminary examinations were declared on January 19. The main examination is scheduled for May 17.
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