CSAT: HPSC restrained from declaring HCS prelims result

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday restrained the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) from declaring the result of the preliminary examination of the Haryana Civil Service (executive branch) and allied services till the decision on the representation regarding Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) examination. The grievance in the representation submitted to the HPSC by some candidates is that 32 questions in the CSAT of 100 marks were copied from the previous year’s examination.
Justice Suvir Sehgal passed these orders while disposing of a petition filed by Ankit Kumar, a resident of Haryana’s Sonipat district, and several others. The copy of the order, however, was not available till the filing of this report.
Sharing the details, the counsel for the petitioners, advocate Ravinder Singh Dhull said that a petition was filed before the high court, seeking directions to quash the impugned Paper-II (CSAT) Examination conducted by the HPSC on May 21 and to reconduct the written examination. “The main grievance of the petitioners was that 32 questions in the CSAT of 100 marks were completely copied from the previous years’ examinations. A representation in this regard was submitted to HC on May 23 by the candidates. After hearing the petition, the HC has ordered the commission to take a decision on the grievance expressed by the candidates on the issue and till the decision is not taken the HPSC has been restrained from declaring the result of preliminary examination,” the counsel for the petitioners ‘said.
Importantly, the preliminary examination of the HCS (executive and allied services) comprises two papers - general studies and CSAT. With minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%, the CSAT is only a qualifying paper. The result of the preliminary examination is based on the marks obtained in the general studies paper subject to the condition that the candidate has scored 33% marks in CSAT. Around 90,000 candidates had appeared in the test in 12 districts held on May 21. The candidates have alleged that questions from number 3 to 22 of the 2023 paper and questions 63-83 of the 2022 paper of the CSAT of HCS Prelims were the same.
The opposition parties had also raised questions over the competency of the HPSC over such a major discrepancy in the prestigious examination that selects the state civil services officers.