- (1.) The petitioner seeks a direction for re-computing the result of the preliminary examination of Punjab State Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination, 2015 conducted on 12.12.2015, by deleting question No.99 of Paper-1 Set-A. In the alternative, the relief of 2 grace marks is sought by correcting the answer key of question No.39 of Paper-II Set-A and to award 2.5 marks to the petitioner for the said question.
(2.) The pleaded case of the petitioner is that 101 posts in various departments were advertised on 11.09.2015 by the respondent-Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala. The examination was to consist of two parts, i.e., preliminary competitive examination and main competitive examination. The preliminary examination, which was held on 12.12.2015, consisted of 2 papers- Paper-I of General Studies and Paper-II in the subject of Civil Services Aptitude Test. Paper-I consisted of 100 questions, having 2 marks for answering each question and Paper-II consisted of 80 questions, having 2.5 marks for answering each question, i.e., total 200 marks. There were 4 sets of question papers, i.e., A, B, C & D, having different serial numbers but same questions.
(3.) The petitioner had secured 264.50 marks and was short of the cut-off by 2 marks which was 266.50. The Commission had provided the question papers and answer keys of Set-A on its website and for question No.99 of Set-A, option 'd' had been given as correct answer whereas the same was wrong. Question No.99 reads as under: "99. Which of the following statements are true for the recently test fired Barak-8 Missile? 1. Barak has been jointly developed by India and Israel. 2. It is a surface-to-surface missile. 3. It has a range of 80 Kms. (a) 1, 2 and 3 (b) 1 and 2 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1 and 3 only";