COMMISSION DECIDES TO FOLLOW COURT ORDER
Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) would be holding viva voce on January 6 in Kohima for 214 candidates. The decision has been taken after an appellate court of the Gauhati High Court asked the NPSC not to declare the result of the viva voce “if conducted” before January 30. NPSC chairman K. Puroh informed Nagaland Post that the commission however would follow the court’s order dated December 20. This meant that the result of the viva voce would not be declared till further orders passed by the court.
The appellate court had earlier directed NPSC not to declare the viva-voce result “if conducted” without the permission of the court, till the next returnable date on January 30, 2015. It may be mentioned that 19 candidates who appeared exams had lodged a complaint against NPSC on September 9 on the ground that over 120 questions were copy-pasted from Tata McGraw Hill book general studies paper 1- during the the mains examination.
Based on the complaint lodged by the candidates, NPSC on September 11, 2014 decided that it would award equal marks to all the candidates who had appeared in the examination. However, the commission on September 12 issued a notification in their website, stating that it would nullify 119 questions on the basis of the complaint that contradicted the September 11 decision to award equal marks to all the candidates.
Candidates who apparently fared well in the examination had challenged the NPSC decision in Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court after which the High Court has issued a stay order “not to declare the result”. NPSC later came up with a reply saying that the decision taken on September 12 was published “inadvertently” despite the fact that it had already taken a decision on September 11 to award equal marks and not to nullify the marks.
The High Court has also directed NPSC to issue a corrigendum in rectifying its notification dated September 12 and to award equal marks to all the candidates and not to nullify the questions. The commission did so by issuing corrigendum on November 27 with a rectification that equal marks would be awarded to all the candidates, published in only one of the local English language-dallies. However, the commission, on the basis of the order of a single bench judge, declared the result of the mains exam 2014 on the statehood day, December 1, 2014.
It may also be recalled that Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) in September 2014 had demanded fresh examination of General Studies Paper-1 (Multiple Choice Questions), NPSC Main examination, 2014.
In a representation forwarded to the NPSC chairman, NSF vice president Joseph Ngouri and education secretary Bangdi Chawang had said the federation took serious note of the “irregularity and discrepancies” in the NPSC Main examination. NSF said the questions set for same paper had 119 questions copy-pasted from Tata McGraw 2013 edition out of the total 200 Multiple Choice Questions.
Since, 119 questions were copy pasted from Tata McGraw edition and out of which 50 question were current affairs of 2013, these 50 questions could not considered as 2014 current affairs. NSF said that to evaluate the capability of the candidates with the remaining 81questions was illogical and highly objectionable. The federation demanded NPSC to nullify the examination and initiate fresh examination for the paper at the earliest possible.
NSF reminded that this was not the first time that such errors and discrepancies were made in the question papers.