HC cancels KAS (Mains) examination

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 13

The J&K High Court today cancelled the ongoing Kashmir Administrative Services (Mains) examination.

Calling for fresh conduct of the examination by the J&K Public Service Commission (JKPSC), the court has permitted 2,794 candidates to appear in the exam. These candidates could not sit in exam after the re-evaluation process as many model answer keys in the preliminary exam were found incorrect.

“Having been left with no option, we direct the cancellation of the mains examination at whatever stage it is as on the date and direct the appellant to hold it afresh by permitting the following set of candidates to participate,” a division bench of Justices Sanjeev Kumar and Janak Raj Kotwal said in the judgment announced today.

“Hold the examination afresh by permitting 429 candidates who were shortlisted in the first result of the Kashmir Administrative Services preliminary examination but could not appear in the mains examination on the basis of (the revision) of their merit in the re-evaluation process,” the division bench said.

The court has also permitted “all those candidates (JKPSC puts their number at 2,365) to sit in the fresh mains examination, who had obtained merit in the preliminary examination determined in the process of re-evaluation equal to or more than the marks secured by the last candidate among the aforesaid 429 candidates.”

Though the JKPSC after the re-evaluation had allowed the 429 candidates, who had been earlier shortlisted in the first result of the preliminary examination but were left out after the re-evaluation, to sit in the ongoing main examination, the High Court observed that keeping the 2,365 candidates out of the selection process would be doing grave injustice and would generate unnecessary litigation.

On June 18, 2016, the JKPSC had invited online applications from the permanent residents of J&K for admission to the J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, 2016, for 277 vacancies, including 269 in the junior scale of the J&K Administrative Service, two in the J&K Police (Gazetted) Service and six in the J&K Accounts (Gazetted) Service.

The commission received 47,122 applications. Of these, 36,681 candidates appeared for the preliminary examination held on March 19, 2017, and 6,925 candidates were shortlisted for the mains examination.

6,925 candidates were shortlisted

• The Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission receives 47,122 applications for 277 vacancies in various departments 
• The result of the prelim exam declared on April 23, 2017; 6,925 candidates shortlisted for the KAS (Mains) examination. The last shortlisted candidate scored 270.477 marks out of the total 450 marks
• Many answer keys of the preliminary examination found to be wrong. Answer sheets of all candidates re-evaluated. The revised result declared on August 9, 2017
• As a consequence, 429 candidates, including 25 petitioners, who had been shortlisted in the earlier result but could not make it in the revised result, held ineligible for the main examination. The HC allows 2,794 candidates, including 429 leftout, to take fresh exam