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4. The said DJS Exam was of the duration of 2 hours and 30 minutes and comprised of 200 objective type questions carrying multiple choices. Candidates were supplied with different booklet series - 'E', 'H', 'K' and 'P' and corresponding OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) answer sheets. In each of the series, the said 200 questions were common but had been placed at different serial numbers. The OMR answer sheets were similarly prepared. For the purposes of convenience we shall be referring to booklet series 'E' and to the answer key in respect thereof.

5. The instructions for candidates, inter alia, stipulated as under:-

"5. The duration of the test is 2 hours 30 minutes.

6. There are 200 questions. Each question has four answer options marked (1), (2), (3) and (4).

7. Answers are to be marked on the OMR Answer Sheet, which is provided separately.

8. Choose the most appropriate answer option and darken the oval completely, corresponding to (1), (2), (3) or (4) against the relevant question number.

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

16. The right to exclude any question(s) from final evaluation rests with the testing authority."

6. As per the appendix read with Rule 15 of the Delhi Judicial Services Rules, the minimum qualifying marks in the preliminary exam is 60% for general and 55% for the reserved categories i.e., Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Physically Handicapped. However, there is another limitation prescribed in the said Appendix and that is that the number of the candidates to be admitted to the main examination (written) should not be more than ten times the total number of vacancies of each category advertised. After the conduct of the said DJS Exam on 18.12.2011 and on evaluation of the OMR Answer Sheets submitted by the candidates, a list of 276 candidates (in alphabetical order), who had been short-listed for being provisionally admitted to the Delhi Judicial Service main examination (written) [i.e., the second stage of the examination process], was notified by the DHC through a notice dated 23.12.2011 which is impugned before us. The break-up of the 276 qualified candidates was - 235 - General, 27 - SC, 7 - ST, 03 - Physically handicapped (blind/low vision), 04 - Physically handicapped (Orthopaedic). The mark obtained by the last qualified candidate of the 'General' category was 123.50.

7. The petitioners claim that the question paper contained many questions which were not properly phrased or were outside the syllabus. It is also contended on behalf of the petitioners that many of the answers as provided in the Answer Keys are clearly wrong and there are others where the answers are not free from doubt. Furthermore, several questions have more than one correct answer whereas the answer key shows only one of them to be correct. The petitioners contend that questions which are outside the syllabus and questions where the answers are doubtful or have more than one correct answer have to deleted from consideration. Those questions for which the answer key shows an incorrect answer should be re-evaluated after correcting the answer key. Then, the answer sheets of all the candidates be re-processed and the corrected list of qualified candidates be published. An argument had also been raised on behalf of the petitioners that the question paper itself was too long. In this connection it was submitted that as the candidates were required to answer 200 questions in 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes), they had, on an average, only 45 seconds to read the question, understand it and mark the answer in the OMR answer sheet. Some of the questions, according to the petitioners, were so long that they would take much more than 45 seconds even to read. Such questions, as submitted on behalf of the petitioners, ought not to have even been included in an objective type multiple choice test. Anyhow, we are not required to go into the aspect of the length of the question paper inasmuch as it was equally long or short for all the candidates and would not hurt their relative chances. Though, that is one aspect which the paper setters must keep in mind for future examinations.