Rajasthan Judicial Services Rules, 2010 – Petitioners qualified for main examination of the Rajasthan Civil Judge Cadre 2024 – Did not meet the cut-off marks for the interview – Writ petitions under Article 32 for quashing of results of main examination and re-evaluation by expert committee – No marked difference in the strictness of evaluation undergone by candidates who qualified for the interview – Absent any significant variation, the process of marking not suspect – Answer sheets duly perused by the Court – Marking of the essay does not suffer from an infirmity that would cast doubt on the overall assessment of the English Essay answer sheets – Petitions dismissed:
Held: 1. Petitioners qualified for the main examination for the Rajasthan Civil Judge Cadre 2024 – Rule 20 of the Rajasthan Judicial Services Rules 2010 (RJS Rules) stipulates the scheme of the selection process – Main examination divided into four parts: (i) Law Paper – I (Civil); (ii) Law Paper – II (Criminal); (iii) Language Paper – I (Hindi Essay); and (iv) Language Paper – II (English Essay) – Language papers to be marked out of fifty each – Three questions were required to be answered in the English Essay – For all candidates, the first question was assessed by a District Judge level officer – The second and the third questions respectively assessed by distinct sets of English Professors working in a Government College to ensure fairness of the process – Minimum aggregate of 40% (35% for SC/ST candidates) for candidates to be eligible for the interview – No minimum marks for language paper – Petitioners aggrieved by fatally low marks in the English Essay that ranged between zero and fifteen out of fifty – Writ Petitions filed under Article 32 for quashing of results of main examination and for re-evaluation of answer papers by an expert committee – Petitions dismissed [Paras 3-5]
2. Note placed on record indicated 95.76% of the candidates secured between zero and fifteen marks – Tabulated statement filed by High Court of Rajasthan indicating marks secured in the Law Paper-I (Civil) and Law Paper-II (Criminal) by those candidates who secured between zero and fifteen marks in the English Essay and who did not qualify for the interview stage – Petitioners have not demonstrated any marked difference in the strictness of evaluation undergone by candidates who have qualified for the interview – Absent any significant variation, the process of marking itself is not suspect. [Paras 8-12]
3. Answer sheets perused by Court – No substance in the allegations that there was deliberate low marking in the English Essay paper – No statistical discrepancy that would warrant intervention – Marking of the essay does not suffer from an infirmity that would cast doubt on the overall assessment of the English Essay answer sheets – Petitions dismissed – Liberty given to candidates having individual grievances, except for issue concluded by this order, to move the High Court under Article 226. [Paras 13-15]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Aandrita Deb, Hony. Associate Editor (Verified by: Shibani Ghosh, Adv.) Sanjay Singh v. UP Public Services Commission (2007) 3 SCC 720; Prashant R Chakrawar v. UPSC (2013) 12 SCC 489; Sujasha Mukherji v. High Court of Calcutta (2015. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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