Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 16: High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has held that evaluation and award of marks is done by the evaluators on uniform standards and court cannot substitute opinion having no expertise in the same.
These observations have been made by Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal while dismissing a petition filed by one Ghulam Mohd Mir, who with a view to make himself eligible for promotion as Inspector, appeared in Part-II examination of the Excise and Commercial Tax Examination.
The short grievance which was projected by the petitioner was that the answers have not been correctly evaluated by the experts and evaluation could have been done by a legal expert only and as per the stand of the petitioner, the evaluator is a retired KAS officer. He further submitted that the examiner was not competent to evaluate the paper in law.
He sought relief like direction to the respondents to place/produce the answer paper written by the petitioner before the court and direction to the respondents to have the answer paper of the petitioner reevaluated by a legal expert.
After hearing counsel for the petitioner and perusal of the record, Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal said, “it is settled preposition of law by the Supreme Court in various authoritative pronouncements that evaluation and award of marks is done by the evaluators on uniform standards who are experts in the field and thus, court cannot substitute its opinion having no expertise in the same”.
“Admittedly, in the present case, as per stand of the respondents, the papers have been evaluated by a subject matter expert of high repute and thus all 34 candidates except the petitioner who appeared in the paper are satisfied with the evaluator and not even a single candidate has raised any grouse except the petitioner, who has failed in the examination of Excise and Commercial Taxes Part-II”, the High Court said.
Justice Nargal further said, “even otherwise also, if the plea of such candidates are accepted for revaluation, then it will be an unending process and there will be no finality to the process of examination and accordingly, it cannot be left open to the whims and caprice of an individual who has failed in the said exam by virtue of his incompetence in the subject”.
“As per the stand of the respondents, the petitioner has not only failed in the examination, but he was also caught indulging in unfair means during the examination, when the petitioner reappeared in the Excise and Commercial Taxes Part-II departmental examination in the year, 2019 for which the disciplinary action has already been initiated against the petitioner. Thus, the petitioner has not only proved his incompetence in the subject in which he has failed but his unworthy conduct can be established from the fact that he was caught indulging in unfair means during examination”, High Court said.
“Thus, viewed from any angle, the present petition is not maintainable and is liable to be dismissed at the very threshold”, the High Court said while dismissing the petition.
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