Case: U.P.P.S.C. and Ors Vs. Rahul Singh and Ors

. These appeals are being disposed of by a common judgment since they arise out of one judgment delivered by the High Court of Allahabad on 30.03.2018.Briefly stated, the facts necessary for the decision of this case are that the appellant U.P. Public Service Commission (for short ‘theissued an advertisement on 22.02.2017 inviting applications for filling up vacancies in the Upper Subordinate Services of the State. The selection is conducted through a three stage test consisting of preliminary written examination, main examination and interview. Those candidates who clear the preliminary examination are entitled to appear in the main examination.The preliminary examination consisted of two papers namely GeneralII. We are in this case concerned only with the Generalpaper which carried 200 marks and consists of 150 objective type questions with multiple choice answers. After the preliminary examination was conducted, key answers were published by the Commission. Many persons including the petitioners before the Allahabad High Court contended that some of the key answers were incorrect or that some of the questions had more than one correct answer.It is not disputed before us that the Commission initially constituted two separate expert committees; one comprising of 15 experts and the other comprising of 18 experts. This was done even before the key answers were displayed on the official website of the Commission. After these two committees gave their expert opinion the key answers were uploaded on the official website of the Commission during the period 18.11.2017 to 23.11.2017. Objections to the key answers were to be submitted by 24.11.2017.The Commission received 962 objections. The Commission constituted a committee consisting of 26 members to consider the objections raised by the candidates. This 26 member expert committee examined all the objections over a period of two days and, thereafter, on the basis of the recommendations of this committee 5 questions were deleted and the key answers of 2 questions were changed. As a consequence the result was declared on the basis of 145 questions. Thereafter, various candidates filed writ petitions in the Allahabad High Court wherein challenge was raised to the correctness of the key answers in respect of 14 questions. The High Court examined these questions and after elaborate discussion and reasoning negatived the prayer of the petitioners in respect of 11 questions but in respect of one question the High Court held that the question should be deleted; in respect of another question it held that there were two correct answers and in respect of one more question it disagreed with the view of the Commission and accepted the submission of the petitioners that the answer given in the key was incorrect. This judgment is under challenge in these appeals.

Reasoning:
12. The law is well settled that the onus is on the candidate to not only demonstrate that the key answer is incorrect but also that it is a glaring mistake which is totally apparent and no inferential process or reasoning is required to show that the key answer is wrong. The Constitutional Courts must exercise great restraint in such matters and should be reluctant to entertain a plea challenging the correctness of the key answers. Iny case (supra), the Court recommended a system of(1) moderation; (2) avoiding ambiguity in the questions; (3) prompt decisions be taken to exclude suspected questions and no marks be assigned to such questions.As far as the present case is concerned even before publishing the first list of key answers the Commission had got the key answers moderated by two expert committees. Thereafter, objections were invited and a 26 member committee was constituted to verify the objections and after this exercise the Committee recommended that 5 questions be deleted and in 2 questions, key answers be changed. It can be presumed that these committees consisted of experts in various subjects for which the examinees were tested. Judges cannot take on the role of experts in academic matters. Unless, the candidate demonstrates that the key answers are patently wrong on the face of it, the courts cannot enter into the academic field, weigh the pros and cons of the arguments given by both sides and then come to the conclusion as to which of the answer is better or more correct.In the present case we find that all the 3 questions needed a long process of reasoning and the High Court itself has noticed that the stand of the Commission is also supported by certain text books. When there are conflicting views, then the court must bow down to the opinion of the experts. Judges are not and cannot be experts in all fields and, therefore, they must exercise great restraint and should not overstep their jurisdiction to upset the opinion of the experts.