High Court dismisses petition seeking deferment of exams

The High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking the postponement of ‘C’ and ‘D’ category post examinations conducted by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC). The exams are scheduled to be held between December 15, 2012 and January 6, 2013.

Hearing a petition by Vishwanath and 10 other differently-abled persons, Justice A N Venugopala Gowda dismissed the petition but gave the petitioners an option.
“Recruitment and conducting examination being service matters, liberty is granted to petitioners to approach the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal,” he said.

The petitioners, seeking postponement of the examination, had submitted that there are several examinations scheduled by other departments on the same days — the dates of which, clashed with exams being conducted by the Karnataka Public Service Commission.

Clash of schedules

Seeking a stay or postponement of examinations, the petitioners had made it clear that one reason behind their request for deferral lay in the Forest Department’s decision to conduct its exams for officers’ posts between December 15 and 19.

Similarly, the exams for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) were due to start from December 23. In addition, the University Grant Commission (UGC) National Eligibility Test (NET) examination is scheduled to be held on December 30, and the Food Corporation of India is conducting its exams on January 6.

In response to demands for exam date deferrals, the KPSC in its submission said that as the examinations are already beyond the scheduled date, they cannot be postponed.
It added that an estimated 16,000 candidates are due to appear for the exams.