Supreme Court To Hear Plea By A Candidate Impugning Viva Voce Results For Appointment As Junior Judicial Assistant

A bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia will hear the matter on August 18, 2023.

AOR Kavita Jha appeared for the petitioner and AOR Binu Tamta appeared for the respondent.

In the pertinent matter, before the High Court there were two candidates who while contending that the criteria for fixing the minimum qualifying marks in viva voce was perverse, challenged the viva voce test result after being declared unsuccessful in qualifying for the appointment to the said posts. Further, the petitioners had qualified three stages out of the four stages stipulated in the advertisement.

As per the averments made, the minimum qualifying marks prescribed for the category in which the petitioners had appeared was ‘11’ and the petitioners secured marks less than ‘11’.

The respondents, however, cited a judgment dated September 26, 2022 titled Karan Singh Meena v. Registrar General, Delhi High Court, W.P. (C) No. 13881/2019 where a coordinate bench of the Court, after referring to the law laid-down by the Supreme Court, held that after having participated in the selection process, a candidate cannot challenge the same after he has been declared unsuccessful.

Therefore, considering that the facts and circumstances in the matter were identical to the case cited, a bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela had observed, “ In view of the ratio laid-down in Karan Singh Meena (Supra) that after having participated in the selection process, the candidate cannot challenge same after he has been declared unsuccessful, we are of the view that the petitions filed by the petitioners would not be maintainable as they have only challenged the criteria after participating in the selection process and being declared unsuccessful. We find no reason to take a different view”.

Cause Title: Aalma v. Delhi High Court