Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR: Thousands of the candidates aspiring to enter the prestigious Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) have in the Preliminary exam described oncology correctly as the ‘science of cancer’. They have got no marks for the correct answer to Question No: 56 of General Studies paper as the answer key prepared by an empanelled expert of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC) describes oncology as the ‘science of mountains’.
When hundreds of the brilliant and highly meritorious candidates for KAS 2016 exam (held on March 19, 2017) found themselves ‘dropped’ in the result notification on April 23, 2017, they filed an application under Right to Information Act to match the PSC’s official answer key to the answers written by them. They were not provided the official answer key. PSC’s Public Information Officers did not bother to even respond to their application and the first appeal.
A few days later, a group of aggrieved candidates trooped into the PSC headquarters in Srinagar and threatened to commit suicide if the authorities continued to deny them access to the official answer key. Thereupon, Secretary Shakeel-ur-Rehman allowed them to enter a room on the condition that they would deposit their cellphones outside so as to ensure that the candidates did not grab any images or videos. Under surveillance, the candidates scrutinized their own OMR answer sheets and tallied same with the PSC’s official answer key.
The ill-fated candidates were startled to discover that the answer key described Oncology, the science of cancer, as the “science of mountains”. So those who wrote the right answer became the losers and those who marked the wrong answer became the gainers. “In other optional subjects, we have learned that the number of wrong questions and answers is 4 to 8. But we discovered a virtual massacre in Political Science. In this paper we found as many as 16 questions or answers wrong. It appears that the question paper and its answer key has been set by someone who has copied text from wrong sources and who has no knowledge of this subject”, said a candidate who had opted for Political Science.
If these candidates are to be believed, in Series ‘A’ of Political Science Q-5 asks what the state of nature is to John Lock. The correct answer is ‘pre-political conditions’. The PSC answer key says ‘pre-social condition’. Q-12 asks the name of the ‘father of scientific socialism’. The correct answer is ‘Karl Marx’. PSC’s key shows ‘Lenin’. Q-15 asks according to which philosophy the ‘State is a necessary evil’. The correct answer is ‘Individualism’. The PSC key shows ‘Utopian socialism’. Q-20 asks “Who said man is born free but everywhere he is in chains?”. The correct answer is “J.J. Roseau”. The PSC’s answer key says “Robert Nozik”.
Q-29 asks the name of the “Chief exponent of legal theory of rights”. The correct answer is ‘T.H. Green’. The PSC’s answer key shows ‘H.J. Laski’. Q-47 asks the name of the philosopher whose philosophy is represented in the U.S. Constitution. The correct answer is ‘Montesquieu’. The PSC key says ‘John Lock’. Q-56 asks which commission was sent to study the working of the Government of India Act 1919. The correct answer is “Simon Commission”. The PSC answer key shows ‘Cabinet Mission’. Furthermore, Q-65 asks the name of the Indian National Congress President when India achieved Independence. The correct answer is ‘J.B. Kriplani’. The PSC’s official key shows ‘Rajender Prasad’. Q-104 asks how many years form term of a Rajya Sabha member. The answer is ‘6 years’. The PSC key shows ‘7 years’.
Q-119 asks about the qualification of the 12 persons nominated as Members for Rajya Sabha by President of India. The correct answer is ‘Special knowledge in art, literature, science and social service’. The PSC answer key shows ‘Special knowledge of art, literature and cooperative movement’.
Incredibly, the candidates discovered that in addition to these 11 wrong answers in the official answer key, there were 5 wrong questions in the Political Science paper. During scrutiny they learned that the PSC had “deleted” these 5 wrong questions days after the exam was conducted.
“This is not mistake but blunder due to which career of so many deserving candidates has been spoiled”, the aggrieved candidates, Mudasir Rather, Farooq Khan and Mukhtyar Khan have written in a representation submitted to Chairman PSC in which they have claimed that their actual marks were between 300 and 305. Since 42 marks rightly achieved by these candidates have not been added to their score, they have been placed between 263 and 257 and thus thrown out of the race. PSC has set the cut-off at 270.
The applicants while mentioning their roll numbers and phone numbers have submitted to Chairman PSC, with copy to Secretary and all Members, requesting them that the errors committed by PSC should be rectified and the wrongly dropped candidates be declared qualified for the Mains. The PSC has completely ignored their representation.
When STATE TIMES asked Chairman PSC Lateef-uz-Zamaan Deva why the aggrieved candidates should not be declared qualified for the Mains and why they should suffer for the errors committed by PSC’s expert, he asserted: “They had approached the J&K High Court. Srinagar wing has dismissed their writ petitions”. He maintained that the PSC was not bound by “Rules” to reveal the official answer key and entertain any objections before completion of entire selection process and declaration of the final result “on the pattern of UPSC”.
Deva did not contest the aggrieved candidates’ claim that 11 questions had wrong answers in the official answer key and five more questions had been found wrong and deleted after the exam was held on March 19. Informed sources, however, insisted that when it became clear to the Chairman that the Secretary had engaged an incompetent and mediocre expert whose wrong questions and answers had spoiled career of over 145 candidates in Political Science, he requested a senior bureaucrat to remove Rather and black list the expert.
On Friday KAS officer Suneeta Anand took over as the new Secretary, charge of Controller of Examinations was assigned to a Deputy Secretary and two officials, working as consultants since long, were also removed.
Chairman Deva said that in the very second meeting of the Commission on August 13, 2015, after it was constituted and he took over as its head, it was decided that PSC would declare the official answer key immediately after holding the Preliminary. Amendment to Rule 12-A and inserting of Rule 12-B was notified vide No: PSC/Exam/2015 Dated 13th August 2015.
“But it proved to be a bitter experience as we were dragged into a plethora of litigations and it took us one full year to get the stay orders vacated. Our selection process was unduly delayed by one year even as all writ petitions were dismissed. It was because of this that the Commission met again in March, 2016, and deleted Rule 12(B) vide Notification No: 07-PSC (DR-P) of 2016 dated 14th March 2016”. This notification has withdrawn the aggrieved candidates’ right to seek declaration of the answer key before completion of the entire selection process.
“Forget about making the answer key public. If the specific wrong questions and answers have been pointed out through various representations, should the PSC ignore and sleep over these till the Mains are held? Why shouldn’t it have a mechanism to rectify its own errors? Why should the candidates with right answers fail and those with wrong answers get selected? If SSRB doesn’t get embroiled in litigations over revealing the answer keys on the day of the examination, what is the problem with PSC?” Asked another candidate.
Eminent lawyer at Supreme Court of India, Vasundra Pathak Masoodi, dismissed the PSC’s contention as “grave injustice to meritorious candidates” and said that she was examining the possibility of coming to the rescue of the aggrieved candidates without charging anything from them. “Someone has to protect their merit and make the PSC accountable for the wrongs it appears to have committed. Someone has to help these brilliant boys and girls”, she added.