CAT permits 7 candidates to appear in JKAS mains exam
Srinagar, Jul 23: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Srinagar on Wednesday directed the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) to provisionally permit seven candidates to appear in J&K Combined Competitive Mains Examination-2024.
A division bench comprising M S Latif, Member (J), and Prasant Kumar, Member (A), allowed the seven aggrieved candidates to appear in the written examination after hearing them through their counsel, Aswad Attar, JKPSC counsel Shah Aamir.
The court also perused the record and an order passed by a bench of CAT at Jammu giving similar relief to a batch of aggrieved candidates.
“We, accordingly, order that the respondents (JKPSC) will provisionally permit the petitioners to participate in the J&K Combined Competitive Mains Examination, 2024, and the respondents shall, accordingly, accept their application forms,” the bench said in its order of July 22.
The matter came up for consideration before the tribunal on May 20, and JKPSC was directed to consider and dispose of the representations filed by the aggrieved petitioners and the grant or refusal of an interim direction as prayed for was deferred till the PSC would file its objections.
The matter was again listed on June 4, and in the absence of objections from the JKPSC, time was extended for doing the needful, but at the same time, counsel for the JKPSC was directed to comply with the direction.
In its objections filed, the JKPSC said that in terms of rule 10-C of the J&K Public Service Commission Conduct of Examination Rules, 2022, the provisional answer keys for General Studies Paper-I and Paper -II were uploaded on the official website of JKPSC on February 23, 2025, and immediately after the conduct of examination, objection were invited from the candidates within three days.
It said that the experts recommended changes in certain answers, and JKPSC, as per rules and established procedure, accepted the recommendations and accordingly notified the final answer key.
The objections indicated that after a careful review, the experts recommended changes in certain answers and the JKPSC, as per rules and established procedure, accepted the recommendations of the experts and accordingly notified the final answer key.
The JKPC in the objections further revealed that the change in the merit position of the candidates about the final answer key cannot be termed as arbitrary and mala fide, and the initial answer keys were notified as provisional and subject to objections and review.
When confronted by the bench whether the representations filed by the petitioners and received by the JKPSC have been disposed of or not, the standing counsel for JKPSC submitted that “conduct of examination in terms of rule 10-C of the Rules of 2022 do not provide for any such postfinalisation review and the key, eventually issued, has been notified as the final answer key”.
“None of the applicants submitted objections in the manner prescribed under rule IO-C of the Rules of 2022; therefore, the objections raised at this stage cannot be entertained, being contrary to the rules governing the examination process,” he said.
Aswad Attar, counsel appearing for the seven aggrieved candidates, submitted that merely not filing representations in a prescribed format cannot deny them their right to seek the disposal of their representations, as it is always substantial justice and not technical justice that has to prevail.
Relying on the decision of the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court passed in LPA No 985/2024, titled as Staff Selection Commission and another versus Shubham Paul and others, Advocate Attar said in the judgment it has been observed that there is no absolute proscription to the Key Answers even where experts have opined.
“Admittedly, correctness or otherwise of the answer keys cannot be commented upon by the court as it falls within the domain of the experts,” the bench said and added at the same time that the “counsel had also referred to an order passed by the division bench of the CAT at Jammu in OAs 624/2025, 526/2025, and 642/2025, wherein, the bench has provisionally permitted the petitioners therein to participate in the J&K Combined Competitive Mains Examination, 2025.”
The counsel further submitted that in the matter on hand, if uniformity of the orders passed by various benches is not maintained, the same will prejudice the legitimate rights of the petitioners.
In response to this, the court found that in the submissions, there was substance that to maintain the uniformity of the orders passed, the same order deserved to be passed in the instant petition as well.
