A Punjab and Haryana high court division bench on Friday allowed an appeal challenging the single-judge order on recasting the Punjab Civil Services examination-2013 merit list. The test was conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).
The high court division bench of justice SK Mittal and justice Shekher Dhawan quashed the single-judge order whereby, the PPSC was directed on January 8, 2015, to re-draw the merit list with minimum 33% marks in the general studies subject as a whole, and not paper-wise.
The commission had prepared the earlier list by awarding 33% marks as minimum in each paper of the general studies, which the high court division bench appears to have upheld on Friday. The detailed judgment is awaited.
The judgment in the case in which high court’s several top service lawyers were associated was being keenly awaited as senior judge on the bench justice SK Mittal has been transferred out of high court.
Senior advocate DS Patwalia and Sehajbir Singh, who represented petitioner Deepak Bhatia, said that single-judge order had been set aside. “The appeal has been allowed. On the face of it, it appears the original criteria of the PPSC has been upheld by the division bench,” Patwalia said.
As many as 120 posts were advertised in 2013. In January, 2015, the PPSC was directed by a single-judge bench to redraw the merit list, while setting aside the methodology adopted by the service commission to prepare it. The decision was challenged in the division bench in April and the single-judge order and the revised merit list prepared by PPSC (as per single- judge order), were stayed.
{{/usCountry}}As many as 120 posts were advertised in 2013. In January, 2015, the PPSC was directed by a single-judge bench to redraw the merit list, while setting aside the methodology adopted by the service commission to prepare it. The decision was challenged in the division bench in April and the single-judge order and the revised merit list prepared by PPSC (as per single- judge order), were stayed.
{{/usCountry}}As a result of the division bench order, the merit is likely to go further changes.