The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed a Hyderabad district and sessions judge to secure the written test papers of the petitioners who had challenged their results of the Sindh Public Service Commission’s (SPSC) examinations, and produce the same before the high court through his representative.
The direction came on the petitions challenging the written exam results of the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) 2024 by the SPSC that had cleared only 70 out of the 4,340 candidates.
A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Saleem Jessar after partially hearing the case observed that the petitioners had challenged the exam results and alleged that they had been declared unsuccessful on flimsy grounds.
The bench observed that since the controversy revolved around written test results, it would be appropriate that the petitioners’ papers be brought before the court for scrutiny. The SHC directed the Hyderabad district and sessions judge to secure the written papers of the petitioners from the Hyderabad SPSC and produce them before the court through a representative. The bench ordered that the examinations would be de-sealed in the presence of the court’s appointed magistrate.
The successful candidates of the SPSC’s written exams also questioned the maintainability of the petition saying that the petitioners being unsuccessful candidates could not be allowed to unsettle the entire process of the SPSC exam on the basis of vague and unsubstantiated allegations.
They said they were successful candidates who had cleared the written test strictly on merit so they had legitimate expectations of being allowed to participate in the interview process. The SHC continued with its interim stay order, under which it had 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 SPSC had earlier defended its written exam results of CCE 2024, saying that it had emerged from a notified, transparently conducted, statutorily prescribed and rigorously administered exam process.
The SPSC said that only 70 candidates qualified by securing not less than 33 percent marks in each individual paper and not less than 50 percent 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, was provided to every aggrieved candidate under the SPSC regulations.
The petitioners, however, 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.
