The Allahabad High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to reply within two weeks on the defects in the question paper which was given to the students for the Assistant Teacher Recruitment Examination, the paper had some portion which was out of syllabus and had wrong options to be answered.
The Division Bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Dinesh Pathak asked the appellants to file an affidavit within two weeks whether the question in the examination were wrong or out of syllabus. The exam was held for recruitment of 69 thousand assistant teachers in the state.
A Special Appeal was filed by Abhishek Srivastava and 14 others who said, that in the examination conducted for appointment of the post of Assistant Teacher there were certain questions, key answers of which were not correct and there were certain questions which were out of the syllabus prescribed, and therefore, marks awarded on those questions should either be excluded while ascertaining merit of a candidate, or equal marks be awarded to all the candidates against those questions.
The Court held that, from the judgment of Single Judge, it appears that he has taken a view that the correctness of the key answers were beyond the purview of judicial review, and therefore, the issue raised was not justifiable in the writ jurisdiction itself.
Counsel for the appellants submitted that they have been successful in showing that the key answers were so palpably incorrect that they fell within the scope of judicial review, and therefore, the judgment of the Single Judge is liable to be set aside.
“Keeping in mind that the petitioners have challenged correctness of different answers to different questions and might have taken separate pleas to challenge those questions, we direct the Counsel of all parties to file a common affidavit disclosing specifically the questions of which the key answers they dispute”, the Court observed.
The Court ordered that, “The questions with their respective key answers and the ground of challenge to those answers including the answers which the appellants consider to be correct shall be put in a tabular form with material on the basis of which their correctness is challenged, in the affidavit.
Similarly, the questions which they claim to be outside the syllabus prescribed shall also be specifically mentioned in the affidavit and the basis for such challenge as being beyond the scope of syllabus would also be mentioned in the affidavit. Such affidavit shall be filed within two weeks, the court directed.
The Court directed Archana Singh, Advocate, who appeared on behalf of respondents including the Board of Basic Education that upon receipt of the affidavit from the appellants, as directed above, she shall file affidavit in response to it within next two weeks”.
The Court stated that, in the meantime, any appointment that has already been made pursuant to the selection process, shall be subject to the decision in these appeals.
The Court fixed August 03, 2021 as the next date of hearing.