Can a candidate secure zero in one paper and above 100 in another of the same subject in a competitive examination? According to the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) at least 404 candidates have secured zero in one paper and above 100 in another paper of Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) Officers examination held in 1998.

It seems the government’s move to recruit 415 KAS officers 9 years back is jinxed. Most of the 79,130 candidates, who appeared for the KAS examination in August 1998, have become over-aged and are not suitable for government jobs due to long pending court cases and alleged malpractices by some of the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) officers.

Some of the candidates had approached the Supreme Court on April 30, 2007, challenging the procedure of the KPSC to adopt the “scaling method” to evaluate the papers as 404 candidates had secured zero in one paper.
When Senior Counsel A K Ganguly and Counsel Rajani K Prasad submitted that moderation and scaling results showed a large scale variation to the tune of 53.28 per cent and this was no way matching to the projected figures of the KPSC, a bench of Justices A K Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari directed the petitioners on Monday to approach the Karnataka High Court for redressal of their grievances particularly on the prayer relating to large-scale variation in marking.

Citing the judgement in Sanjay Singh vs UP Public Service Commission, Ganguly said the apex court held earlier that raw marks could not be converted into scaled scores on an artificial scale with assumed variables (assumed mean marks and assumed standard deviation), such artificially allotted marks can not be considered as “marks finally awarded” or “marks obtained”.

Scaled scores are not marks awarded to the candidates in a written examination, but a figure arrived at for the purpose of being placed on a common scale.

Hence, the selection of candidates by the KPSC based on the scaled scores assigned to them is in gross violation of the Karnataka Recruitment of Gazetted Probationers (Appointment by Competitive Examination) Rule, 1997 and fundamental rights enshrined under the sections 14, 19, 21 of the Constitution, said the counsel during the arguments.

“Award of zero marks to 404 candidates is absurd. Only those who did not attempt any answer or had absolutely no knowledge of either Kannada or English would have got zero. The table showed higher range marks of hundred plus marks had been reduced to zero,” said Ganguly.