MANMIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the result notification dated 19.6.2013 whereby the Teacher Eligibility Test was conducted by respondent no.2 in pursuance of the advertisement (Annexure P/1) in view of the large scale irregularities in the question paper and answer key and has also challenged the evaluation process of the answer sheets on the ground of the wrong answer key being present.

(2.) The grouse of the petitioner is that the said result has led to arbitrary short listing of the candidates and has taken away his right to equality and direction may be issued to consider his case for Punjab State Teacher Eligibility Test-I (for brevity "PSTET) or in the alternative to decide the representation (Annexure P/10) which pertains to the discrepancy of question No.93 and 132 and he be declared qualified.

(3.) The case of the petitioner is that a candidate who secured 60% or more marks in the above said examination is considered as PSTET pass and qualifying certificate is issued and validity of such certificate is for 7 years. The advertisement was issued in April, 2013 for holding the said test which was held on 9.6.2013 and the petitioner had applied for appointment as Teacher in Classes I to V and had duly qualified minimum educational qualification. He secured 89 marks out of 150 marks i.e. one mark short of qualifying marks. The said examination carried 150 multiple choice questions and the minimum qualifying score was thus 90 marks i.e. being 60% of the total marks. Several questions were wrong and as much as did not contain correct option or contained multiple correct options. Reference was made to two questions namely No.93 and 132 to submit that there were infirmities in the answer key which have resulted in the petitioner not qualifying and a representation had also been filed on 13.9.2013 (Annexure P/10) but no action has been taken.