A division bench of Punjab and Haryana High Court has given a following ruling, though I am yet to read the entire judgment, I am posting the contents from a newspaper.
HPSC can include prelim marks in viva score: HC
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 16
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the Haryana Public Service Commission is within its right to include the score of the preliminary test in the viva voce marks held subsequently. This ruling came on an appeal filed by Ranbir Singh Kharab against the state of Haryana and other respondents.
In their appeal placed before a Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Gurdev Singh, the appellant had earlier questioned whether the Public Service Commission and other recruiting agencies are within their “right to hold a preliminary test with objective-type multiple-choice questions for shortlisting the candidates and include those marks in the marks for viva voce”.
Taking up the matter, a single Judge had earlier ruled that Article 14 and 16 (1) of the Constitution had not been violated by including the marks of the preliminary test in the viva voce.
In his order, the single Judge had also turned down the argument given by the candidate that he was not aware of the inclusion of the marks in the viva voce score “so as to enable him to prepare better.”
The Judge had observed that in a competitive examination of this nature, every candidate is expected to perform to the best of his ability. “There are no allegation of mala fide showing that the course was adopted in order to favour some and to prejudice others”.
Dismissing the appeal, the Bench asserted it was unable to find legal infirmity in the view taken by the single Judge. “The appeal is wholly without merit,” the Bench ruled.
Elaborating, the Bench added: “Firstly, in order to restrict the number of candidates, a preliminary test with an objective-type multiple-choice question paper is always better.
“We are further of the view that there is no illegality committed by the commission in rejecting the argument that the marks of the preliminary test were included in the viva voce illegally. The view of the single Judge does not suffer from any illegality. Accordingly, the appeal fails.”
I AM NOT IN AGREEMENT WITH THIS JUDGMENT, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE OPINION OF MY OTHER FRIENDS.
