HC raps PPSC for arbitrary notice on marks deduction

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, May 3

Less than two years after the Punjab Public Service Commission initiated a process for recruitment of 118 Ayurvedic Medical Officers, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday observed that provision for negative marking for candidates raising objections to wrong answer keys was arbitrary and draconian. The Bench further observed it appears to have been incorporated without application of mind to the relevant facts.

Appearing before Justice Jaswant Singh’s Bench, the counsel for petitioner Hari Chand Arora contended that the objective type written test was conducted by the PPSC on October 29, 2017. However, on the same day, before finalising the result, the PPSC published a public notice on its website inviting the candidates to submit their objections to wrong answers in the answer keys within three days. But the candidates were warned that if their objections were found to be wrong, three marks for each objection would be deducted from their score.

Arora contended that the public notice was arbitrary and it discouraged the candidates to lodge objections against wrong answers in the answer key.