Today, the Supreme Court rejected petitions challenging the evaluations of the English essay paper in the Rajasthan Civil Judge Exams 2024. The Court observed that, based on the nature of the answers, there were no evident deliberate discrepancies in the marking process.

The bench, consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, was hearing petitions that challenged the Rajasthan Civil Judge Cadre, 2024, citing alleged arbitrary marking in the English essay papers.

During the previous hearing, the Court directed the Rajasthan High Court to provide a tabulated chart detailing the scores of two Law papers for candidates who received low scores (0-15) in the English essay paper.

“Based on the nature of answers in the English essay, we have no manner of doubt that there is any substance in the allegation that was a deliberate low marking in the English Essay paper.”

Upon reviewing the answer sheets, the Court noted that the responses in some cases were unsatisfactory. In one instance, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud highlighted a particular essay where Justice Krishna Iyer was incorrectly quoted.

“Who is Justice Krishnaswamy? Maybe Justice Krishna Iyer became Krishnaswamy!

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Rajasthan High Court, stated that the English exam consisted of three questions, each graded separately. The first question was evaluated by a District Judge-level officer, while the second and third questions were assessed by two sets of English professors from government colleges to eliminate any potential for disproportionate marking.

“Based on the tabulated position disclosed before the court, we find no statistical discrepancies in the nature that would warrant the intervention of this Court under Article 32 …..the marking of the essays do not suffer from any infirmities of the sort that would cast doubt on the nature of the overall assessment of the essay answer sheets. We therefore decline to entertain these petitions.”

The Court clarified that any petitioner with an individual grievance, aside from what was addressed in this order, is free to approach the Rajasthan High Court under Article 226.

The petitions collectively assert that, although the candidates performed well overall, they were unjustly assigned low marks ranging from 0 to 15 out of 50 in the English Essay Writing Paper. This has allegedly compromised their eligibility for the final interview stage.

Earlier, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud made an oral remark that the Court would reverse the process if any irregularities were discovered, irrespective of whether the interviews had been completed.