The written exam results of the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) 2024 emerged from a notified, transparently conducted, statutorily prescribed and rigorously administered exam process, the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) told the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.
Filing comments on petitions challenging the CCE 2024’s written exam results, which cleared only 70 of the 4,340 students, the SPSC said that only 70 candidates qualified by securing not less than 33 per cent marks in each individual paper and not less than 50 per cent marks on the aggregate.
The SPSC said that the remaining 4,270 candidates, including the petitioners, did not meet the statutory threshold. It also questioned the petition’s maintainability, as a complete, time-bound and statutorily prescribed remedy by way of representation, followed by appeal, is provided to every aggrieved candidate under the SPSC regulations.
The SPSC said that any order against the written exams would directly and adversely affect each of the 70 individuals who were declared successful in the exams. It said that the entire relevant record of the CCE 2024 has been sealed in compliance with the court’s order.
The petitioners’ counsel requested the court to allow them to array the 70 successful candidates of the written test as respondents in the petitions. An SHC division bench headed by Mohammad Saleem Jessar granted the request, and directed the petitioners to array the 70 successful candidates as respondents in the case.
The court continued its interim stay order, under which it suspended the impugned press release regarding the publication of the names of the 70 successful candidates, with no further process to be taken until further court orders.
The petitioners claimed that they had secured the highest marks in the screening test, but the SPSC, under extraneous considerations, declared only its blue-eyed boys successful.
They said that if the process on the basis of written exam is allowed to continue, the petitioners would suffer irreparable loss and be deprived of justice, as they have been declared unsuccessful without any lawful justification.
