TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1984 (2) TMI 368
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....nent residents of Jammu & Kashmir State for admission to the first year MBBS in the medical colleges at Jammu & Srinagar. One of the conditions of eligibility was that a candidate should have passed the "First TDC (Medical Group) examination from Jammu & Kashmir Board of School Education with not less than 50% of the total marks' in English and Science subjects taken together". There was some relaxation in favour candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, etc. with which we are not now concerned. We are also not concerned in these writ petitions with the 'reservations' made in favour of various classes. We are only concerned with the seats or places available for open competition. The advertisement expressly mentioned that the candidates would have to appear in a written test of 'TDC-Part I Standard' comprising of two papers, one paper consisting of the subjects, Physics and Chemistry and the other Biology and English. It was also mentioned in the advertisement that the candidates would be required to appear at a Viva-voce examination. On 7th July, 1983, the Government of Jammu & Kashmir published a notification called the Jammu & Kashmir Government Medical C....
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....ee interviewed the candidates. The committee met again on October 25, 1983 by which time the results of the written test were also available. The Selection Committee proceeded with the task of finalising the selection. The selected candidates were sent individual intimations and on December 3, 1983, a notification was published by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir informing the public that the result of the written test/Viva Voce held for admission to the First year of the MBBS Course for the Medical-Colleges of the State was available in the offices of the Principals of the Government Medical Colleges at Jammu and Srinagar. Candidates were also told that marks card would be issued on payment of a fee of Rs. 5/- and that any candidate interested in seeing his/her answer book could do so on payment of Rs. 20/- as fee for each paper. Some of the facts mentioned above were taken by us from the counter affidavits filed on behalf of the Government of Jammu & Kashmir and were not admitted by the petitioners. We do not however have the slightest doubt about the correctness of these facts, as they are fully supported by contemporaneous official records. 3. The petitioners have filed the....
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....ous. We find that there are candidates belonging to both the majority and the minority communities among the candidates who were able to secure admission because of the points scored by them in the viva voce test as also amongst the candidates who failed to secure admission because of their low score in the viva voce test. The inconsiderateness of the allegation is evident from the fact that the marks obtained by the candidates in the written test were not even available to the Selection Committee when they conducted the viva voce test. This circumstance is sufficient to repudiate the bread allegation freely made by Shri Anil Dev Singh that the viva voce test was designed to facilitate the selection of candidates who had fared badly in the written test. 5. The submission that the questions put to the candidates at the interview were not designed to test either the aptitude, general knowledge or general intelligence of the candidates is equally without substance. In the writ petitions, no such averment was made and no instances were given. In the petition a general allegation was made that the viva voce test had been abused to dilute the otherwise high merit of the petitioners. O....
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....t a large number of candidates are nervous and in order to put them at case it is necessary to ask them to start with, innocuous questions, such as, what is your father's occupation?, which part of the country do you come from?, what is your mother-tongue? and so on. Such questions are intended to enable the candidate to feel at case and get over his nervousness. No complaint can surely to made that candidates were put such questions. We also fail to see how any complaint can be made of the fact that questions on science subjects were asked of candidates seeking admission to medical colleges, Surely such questions are at least as good as questions about the name of the capital of an obscure Latin American State or who captained India in the Second test match against Pakistan in 1980. We entertain on doubt that the questions asked were proper and relevant. We add that it is not for the court to sit in judgment over the nature of the questions to be put by the members of the Selection Committee. It is for the members of the Selection Committee to decide what questions they should ask and so long as the questions are not such as to indicate that the interview was nothing but a mak....
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....determining suitability based on personal characteristics has been recognised in a number of decisions of this Court which are binding upon us". The Court then quoted from Chitra Lakha and Ors. v. State of Mysore and Ors [1964]6SCR368 and (sick) State of Tamil Nadu and Ors [1971]2SCR430 and observed: It is therefore, not possible to accept the contentions of the petitioners that the oral interview test is so defective that selecting candidates for admission on the basis of oral interview in addition to written test must be regarded as arbitrary. The oral interview test is undoubtedly not a very satisfactory test for assessing and evaluating the capacity and calibre of candidates, but in the absence of any better test for measuring personal characteristics and traits, the oral interview test must, at the present stage, be regarded as not irrational or irrelevant though it is subjective and based on first impression, its result is influenced by many uncertain factors and it is capable of abuse. We would, however, like to point out that in the matter of admission to college or even in the matter of public employment, the oral interview test as presently held should not be rel....
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....never intended to lay down any hard and fast rules. In the very nature of things it would not be within the province or even the competence of the Court and the Court would not venture into such exclusive thickets to discover ways out, when the matters are mere appropriately left to the wise expertise of medical academicians interested in the quality and integrity of medical education and public administrators conversant with various administrative and socio-economic problems, needs and requirements. The Court's duty lies in preventing arbitrariness and denial of equal opportunity. The question as to the subjects in which an entrance test may be held is hardly a matter for the court, unless, of course, the subjects are so arbitrarily chosen as to have not the slightest connection with the object of the examination. Such a situation is not likely to arise as the authorities may be expected to act reasonably. Again it is not for the court to lay down whether an interview test should be held at all or how many marks should be allotted for the interview test. Of course, the marks must be minimal so as to avoid charges of arbitrariness but not necessarily always. There may be posts ....
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....vice Law and Practice". We further said: Thus, the written examination assesses the man's intellect and the interview test the man himself and "the twain shall meet" for a proper selection. If both written examination and interview test are to be essential features of proper selection, the question may arise as to the weight to be attached respectively to them. In the case of admission to a college, for instance, where the candidate's personality is yet to develop and it is too early to identify the personal qualities for which greater importance may have to be attached in later life, greater weight has per force to be given to performance in the written examination. The importance to be attached to the interview test must be minimal. That was what was decided by this Court in Periakaruppan v. State of Tamilnadu, Ajay Hasia etc. v. Khalid Mujib Seharvardi and Ors. etc., (supra) and other cases. On the other hand, in the case of services to which recruitment has necessarily to be made from persons of mature personality, interview test may be the only way, subject to basic and essential academic and professional requirements being Satisfied. To subject such persons t....
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....on to each service, There cannot be any magic formulate in these matters and courts cannot sit it judgment over the methods of marking employed by interviewing bodies unless, as we said, it is proven or obvious that the method of marking was chosen with oblique motive. It is true that in Periakaruppan's case the Court held that, the non allocation of marks under various heads in the interview test was illegal but that was because the instructions to the Selection Committee provided that marks were to be awarded at the interview on the basis of five distinct tests. It was thought that the failure to allocate marks under each head or distinct test was an illegality. 14. The criticism that the Selection procedure was bad because the marks obtained by the candidates at the respective qualifying examinations were not taken into account, but only the marks in the written test and the oral test conducted by the Selection Committee, has also no force. We were told that the qualifying examination, that is, the First TDC (Medical Group) examination was held at different times in Jammu and Srinagar. Naturally the question papers, etc. must have been different. The Selection Co....
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.... fixed the quorum for a meeting of the Selection Committee as the Chairman and one other member and it was possible to have a quorum without the Principal of the Medical College, Srinagar. The procedure adopted by the Selection Committee and the member concerned was in accord with the quite well-known and generally accepted procedure adopted by the Public Service Commissions every where. It is not unusual for candidates related to members of the Service Commission or other Selection Committee to seek employment. Whenever such a situation arises, the practice generally is for the member concerned to excuse himself when the particular candidate is interviewed. We, notice that such a situation had also been noticed by this Court in the case of Nagarjan v. State of Mysore [1970] 1 S.C.C. 457 where it was pointed but that in the absence of mala fides, it would not be right to set aside the selection merely because one of the candidates happened to be related to a member of the Selection Commission who had abstained from participating in the interview of that candidate. Nothing unusual was done by the present Selection Committee. The girl's father was not present when she was intervi....