Chhatrapal Singh Bisht vs Uttarakhand Public Service Commission & Anr

Lok Pal Singh, J

Petitioner has approached this Court seeking the following reliefs:-

i) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding and directing the respondent no.1 to award 2 marks for Question No.13 and declare the petitioner qualified to appear in the interview for the post of Lecturer History.

ii) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding and directing the respondents to give appointment to the petitioner on the post of Lecturer (History) in accordance with law.

Pursuant to an advertisement dated4.9.2018, inviting applications for the post of Lecturers in different subjects, including the post of Lecturer (History), petitioner submitted his application form for the post of Lecturer History. Petitioner appeared in the written examination; he was given Question Booklet Series 'B' in which he gave option 'C' i.e. Black Thursday to question no.13 and marked the same in OMR sheet. After the examination, provisional answer key was uploaded on the website wherein answer to question no.13 was also shown as answer 'C'. On 17.05.2019, result of the written examination was declared in which the petitioner was declared unsuccessful. On the selfsame day, final answer key was uploaded on the website, in which answer of Question No.13 was shown as 'B' i.e. Black Tuesday. Being aggrieved, petitioner approached the respondent no.1 but no heed was paid to it.

Question No.13 in Booklet Series 'B' is as follows:-

The great economic depression started from 24th October, 1929 AD. What is this date called?

(A) Black Monday       (B) Black Tuesday

(C) Black Thursday       (D) Black Friday

Petitioner has given option 'C' i.e. Black Thursday, however, final answer key suggests the answer 'B' i.e. Black Tuesday.

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the last selected candidate for the post of Lecturer (History) in General Category secured 136.50 marks whereas the petitioner secured 135 marks because of the discrepancy in the evaluation process, petitioner has been disqualified by 1.50. Learned counsel would contend that the correct answer of question no.13 is 'Black Thursday' however he has been given zero marks for the said answer, as per revised answer key, while in the earlier answer key, it was shown as correct answer. To buttress his submissions, learned counsel for the petitioner would draw attention of this Court to NCERT Book namely "समकालीन विष्व इतिहास" written by Mohammad Anwar Ul Haq, Himanshu S. Patnayak, Pratush K. Mandal which indicates that on 29.10.1929 it was Black Tuesday, and according to Calendar of 1929, on 24.10.1929 it was Thursday. Therefore, on 24.10.1929, it was Black Thursday.

He would further submit that as per Modern Word History the date 24.10.1929 is known as Wall Street Crash. He would also place reliance on the following information gathered via Internet:-

"Black Thursday was the beginning of one of the worst stock market crashes in U.S. history. On October 24th, 1929, the Dow Jonesh Industrial Average opened at 305.85."

Besides above, learned counsel for the petitioner would also submit that in earlier occasion for the post of Assistant Professor same question was asked by the Commission from the candidates for which correct answer was shown as Black Thursday.

Counter affidavit has been filed by the respondent no.1 wherein it is stated that in the present case objection on the answer key of question paper for Lecturer History was filed by 41 candidates for different questions including Q.No.13 of Question booklet series 'D', Question No.94 in Series 'A', Question No.32 in Series 'B' and Question No.63 in Series 'C'. In pursuance of the above objection, the subject experts after due consideration and on the basis of relevant material had changed the option to Black Thursday. After disposal of the objection by the subject experts, as per the corrected answer key provided by the experts, the result had been declared.

I have given my thoughtful consideration to the rival submissions made by learned counsel for the respective parties and have also gone through the material available.

Ordinarily, the Court should not sit over the decision of the Expert Committee but when the mistake is apparent on the face of record, the Court should not refrain itself from passing any order granting relief to the candidate who has suffered much because of such mistake. In the case at hand, ample evidence has been produced by the petitioner in support of his case, on perusal whereof, there is no room for doubt that the correct answer to question no.13 i.e. The great economic depression started from 24th October, 1929 AD. What is this date called? is Black Thursday.

Accordingly, writ petition is allowed. A mandamus is issued to the respondent no.1 to re-evaluate the answer sheets of all the candidates with regard to question answered above, on the basis of observations made in the body of this judgment and a fresh merit list be prepared accordingly. No order as to costs.

Pending applications, if any, stand disposed of accordingly.