Haryana Civil Services Exam: HC directs HPSC to upload results of all candidates

The Punjab and Haryana high court has set seven days deadline for Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) to upload the results of the candidates who appeared in the recently held main examination of Haryana Civil Services (HCS-executive branch) and other allied services.

The preliminary examination of this highly competitive and most -sought after government job was held on May 21. The main examination was conducted on August 12-13, and the result was declared on September 25.

Against a total of 106 advertised vacancies only 61 persons were declared as having qualified the main examination and were called for interviews, beginning October 9. All of them were officially declared as selected on October 11. The HPSC has now allotted cadre to all the selected 61 candidates as per their Order of Merit.

Large number of unsuccessful candidates had petitioned the high court after the result of the main examination was declared and one of their contentions was that why the HPSC was not revealing the subject wise marks of those failed to qualify the main examination.

“Within a week from today, the commission (HPSC) shall upload the results with the details of all the candidates,” division bench of Justice Deepak Sibal and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur stated in October 18 order, while granting last opportunity to the HPSC to file a written statement.

As per the petition, the HPSC rules mandate that no person will be called for the viva voce test unless s/he gets 45% marks in the aggregate of all written papers and scores 33% marks in Hindi and English.

The petitioners have submitted that fixation of 45% marks criteria to qualify for the interview is “arbitrary and harsh” and that “no moderation has been done” even as written examination was conducted in 29 different subjects.

The option of moderation of marks is exercised to remove the variation caused by multiple subjects and multiple examiners in different subjects.

In this context, the petition said the main written examination conducted in 29 different optional subjects ranged from English literature to mathematics and physics etc. The written test papers of all the different subjects were checked by different examiners.

“It is on this count that moderation/scaling is done even by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in examination conducted for appointment to the Indian administrative service...,” reads the petition, adding that HPSC did not follow moderation/scaling option to create a level playing field for the candidates with different optional subjects.

The petitioners have also prayed for “reduced minimum qualifying marks for reserved categories candidates” and for granting grace marks for the petitioners by doing moderation/scaling for the main written examination conducted in different subjects.

The selection and appointment to the HCS (executive branch) and the allied services is governed by Rules called the Haryana Civil Service Executive Branch Rules 2008.

As per the petition, the HPSC has not declared category-wise result, instead the result has been declared jointly for general category and all other reserved categories, including scheduled castes (SC), backward classes (A-B) of Haryana, economically weaker sections (EWS) and ex-servicemen of Haryana.

As per the petition, separate result of the main examination was not published for persons with disabilities.

“...it is well settled that persons of reserved categories are entitled to have a lower standard of minimum marks required vis-a-vis the general category...persons of reserved categories should be considered and called for viva voce by reduced standards of minimum marks...provisions of the Constitution mandate that the state must consider and prescribe a minimum qualifying marks for reserved category candidates, which are lower than the marks prescribed for general candidates,” the petitioners have submitted and the case will come up for resumed hearing on November 16.