Scaling system to award marks irrational

LEGAL DIGEST

The Supreme Court has declared as "irrational" and "arbitrary" the scaling system of awarding marks to candidates for recruitment of 347 civil judges. The exam was conducted in November 2003 by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission.

However, since the appointments have already been effected, a three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice YK Sabharwal, and Justice CK Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran refrained from setting aside the results, but asked the commission to desist from adopting the method in future exams for civil judges.

The Bench also asked the commission to consider the case of the petitioners for appointment against future vacancies, provided they were found to have been affected by the scaling method.

The Bench upheld the complaint of the petitioners that the scaling system, a method of moderation adopted by the commission, had resulted in absurd situations like candidates with zero marks in certain subjects being declared as qualified and those securing the qualifying marks failing the clear the exam.

After considering the method, the Bench noted that the formula of calculating the average marks of a batch of candidates and converting their individual marks in proportion to the batch's average mark led to absurd results.

Land worth Rs 4,400 crore cleared, Delhi HC told

A Delhi High Court-appointed panel on Wednesday said encroachments from public land, valued at about Rs 4,400 crore, had been removed in the city. The committee said this in its 7th report submitted before the court during the hearing of a petition by Kalyan Sanstha Social Welfare Organisation on illegal construction and misuse of land in Delhi.

Patting the MCD and DDA for carrying out the sealing and demolition drive, a three-member committee comprising BL Vohra, RS Gupta and RK Mishra said major encroachments had been removed from many zones in the city.

The committee advocated a public awareness campaign on the removal of encroachments from public land and encouragement of voluntary removal.