Retired Apex Court judge to re-evaluate DJSE 2014 answer scripts

New Delhi, November 2: The Apex Court, today, decided that it will appoint one of its former judges to re-evaluate the answer scripts of the Delhi Judicial Services Examination (DJSE), 2014, conducted by the Delhi High Court which has raised questions of nepotism and favouritism.
The Division Bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C. Pant said that the judge they would appoint would be the “strictest” judge.
“We will appoint the strictest judge,” Justice Misra was quoted as saying while declaring that the next hearing of the matter would be held on November 6 when the Court would name the judge.
After re-evaluating the answer scripts, the judge would submit the report to the Court.
The Court’s order came on a PIL filed by the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) questioning the evaluation process of the answer papers.
The Court, by its August 4 order declined to stay the interview of the successful candidate, saying: “We are not inclined to stay the interview. However, the results would be dependent on the ultimate outcome of the petition.”
Challenging the main 2014 DJS Examination on the grounds of “selection and evaluation process being unreasonable and arbitrary” and in “violation of Article 14,” the PIL has contended that some of the candidates in their representation have said that they were “toppers and gold medallists in their respective law colleges”.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for CPIL, said that 659 candidates out of 9033, who were declared successful in preliminary examination, took the main examination held on October 10 and 11 last year.
“The result of this main examination was declared on May 1 2015, almost 8 months after the said examination was held. Surprisingly, only 15 candidates (13 from General Category and 2 from the Reserved Category) have been selected for the interview for total 80 vacancies. That means a total of 98 per cent of the candidates were failed and only 2 per cent managed to pass,” Bhushan said
“What is remarkable is that at least 68 candidates, who appeared for the main exam but not selected for the interview, are those who have already cleared judicial examinations of other States and most of them are sitting judges in their respective states. At least 6 of them are 1st rank holders in the judicial exams of their respective states, and at least 3 candidates are 2nd rank holders in their respective judicial exams,” he added.
Saying that nothing could be decided on assumption and presumption, the Court did not accept Bhushan’s submission that some of the toppers in the judicial services examination of other states were unsuccessful in DJS 2014 exam. “We don’t accept Prashant Bhushan’s submission that toppers will always be toppers,” said the Bench.
The Bench also stated that it was not necessary that a person who cleared judicial exam of other states would qualify for the DJSE. However, it agreed for re-evaluation of answer sheets of candidates in order to put to rest the allegation on the fairness of the exam.