KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered reassessing the written test papers of the candidates who have challenged the results of the Sindh Public Service Commission’s (SPSC) Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) 2024, and directed the Sukkur IBA University vice chancellor to conclude the exercise within a month.
The direction came on the petitions challenging the written exam results of CCE 2024 that had cleared only 70 of the 4,340 candidates. 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.
The SHC said the petitioners and others who took the exams hope they would be treated fairly, and be provided an equal opportunity and an open atmosphere to compete.
However, it added, the SPSC, through its illegitimate actions, has suffocated the desires of the meritorious children, to which the court cannot turn a blind eye.
The court said that complaints against the SPSC of indulging in favouritism have been increasing day by day, and the commission has failed to maintain its dignity, which it should have, so this necessitates accountability.
The court expressed fear that if the SPSC goes scot-free with its high-handedness, a huge chaos would occur in society in the future, which might remain uncontrolled.
The court said that it is imperative upon the provincial government to look into the SPSC’s affairs and identify the persons responsible for manoeuvring the results, and passing the intangible candidates and recommending them for recruitment.
The court said that the basic purpose of the SPSC’s establishment was to provide officers selected through a transparent and meritorious process, and to ensure that only the deserving candidates got appointed.
The court observed that the SPSC’s representatives, including the controller of examinations, had filed their respective replies but they had been found unsatisfactory and evasive in nature.
The Sindh advocate general opposed the reassessment of the answer sheets of the petitioners, saying that no provision for it is provided under the law. The court said that copies of civil service exams cannot be re-examined, but the SPSC’s case is an exception.
The court said that it
is heaped with a large number of petitions challenging the SPSC’s recommendations with allegations that those recommendations have been made on the acceptance of bribes and influence.
Sending test papers of the candidates to the Sukkur IBA University VC, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Saleem Jessar said the VC should get these copies examined in his presence from the professors possessing the qualification in the relevant subjects.
The court said that the reassessment would show whether the first examiner had given the marks the candidates deserved or they deliberately gave them low marks, and what should the actual marks be.
The court said the VC should ensure the papers’ reassessment within a month, and submit the re-tabulated results signed by him and the examiner to the court.
The court continued 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 successful candidates of the SPSC’s written exams questioned the maintainability of the petition, saying that the petitioners being unsuccessful candidates cannot be allowed to unsettle the entire process of the SPSC exam on the basis of vague and unsubstantiated allegations.
They said they are successful candidates who had cleared the written test strictly on merit, so they have legitimate expectations of being allowed to participate in the interview process.
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, is provided to every aggrieved candidate under the SPSC regulations.
