Postpone HCS exams: Punjab and Haryana HC

he Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday asked Haryana Public Service Commission to postpone the main written examination of Haryana Civil Service(HCS) executive and allied services 2011, scheduled for September 2.
The HC also directed HPSC to constitute an expert committee to redress the grievances of unsuccessful candidates of preliminary examination, who had alleged that wrong questions and answers were set in the examination paper for general studies, a compulsory paper, and some optional papers.
The directions were passed by Justice Augustine George Masih of the HC while disposing of a bunch of petitions by Jitender Kumar and others, who had appeared in the preliminary examination.
The petitioners had challenged the HPSC granting marks to candidates in the preliminary examination of HCS-2011 examination held on March 25 this year. They had also objected to the decision of commission where grace marks were given to some candidates for wrong answers in the paper of general studies (compulsory paper) and some optional papers.
Seeking quashing of commission's decision to award grace marks, the petitioners had submitted that Haryana Civil Services (executive branch) Rules 2008, has no provisions for giving grace marks for wrong questions, if found in papers/booklets of the preliminary/main examination.
After hearing their contentions, HC directed the HPSC to constitute a committee of experts to consider the representations received from candidates by the commission regarding the questions.
Further directing the HPSC to publish the answer key of the preliminary examination within three days from Thursday, HC asked it to call for representations from candidates within a reasonable time, before referring these to the expert committee.
HC has ordered that the result of preliminary examination be thereafter compiled afresh and declared after the committee gives its report.