The Delhi High Court's division bench comprising Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Amit Mahajan has dismissed the plea by a judicial aspirant seeking directions to declare him as qualified in Delhi Higher Judicial Services (Mains) Examination (Written) – 2022.

The petitioner could not clear the said DHJS (Mains) Examination and was declared unsuccessful solely for the reason that the marks secured by him in Paper-I (GK and Language) were below the specified threshold of 45%.

The petitioner obtained 67 marks out of the maximum of 150 marks and, therefore, failed to meet the threshold required for being admitted to the next stage of the examination – viva voce.

It was the petitioner's case that none of the marks awarded against his answers are in fractions; therefore, his marks for Paper-I are required to be rounded off.

Advocate Rohit Sharma appeared for the Petitioner whereas Advocate Gaurav Agarwal represented the Respondent.

The Court held that it would have acceded to the said request of the petitioner but for a specific provision contained in Delhi Higher Judicial Services Rules, 1970, which prohibits rounding off of marks.

"In view of the specific provision, this Court is unable to grant the relief as sought for by the petitioner.", the Court held.

The Court noted that the petitioner had also approached the Supreme Court by filing a writ petition seeking similar reliefs as sought in the present petition.

The petition before the Supreme Court came to be dismissed while holding that it is a hard case. Thus, Supreme Court had to dismiss it albeit, with a heavy heart.

The High Court also held the same.

"We do the same with equally heavy hearts.", the Court held while dismissing the petition.

Cause title- Anil Kumar v. High Court of Delhi

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Delhi High CourtJustice Vibhu BakhruJustice Amit MahajanDelhi Higher Judicial Service Examination

Ashish Shaji