The National Testing Agency’s (NTA) competence has come under judicial scrutiny once again.
The principal bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has admitted a case filed by candidates of the recruitment exam for 553 posts of patent and design engineers conducted by the NTA last year.
The petitioners have alleged a series of glitches during the conduct of the exam. The CAT bench comprising Justices Sumeet Jerath and Harvinder Kaur Oberoi last Friday stayed the joining of the selected candidates.
The department of promotion of industry and internal trade under the commerce ministry had advertised the posts in 2023. It recently issued appointment letters to the selected candidates and asked them to join in batches on January 13 and 20 this year.
“Considering the issues raised, particularly regarding the fair and transparent conduct of the recruitment process, this tribunal deems it appropriate to stay the further recruitment process to prevent the creation of third-party rights. The respondents, including the NTA, are directed to file their counter reply within 10 days,” the CAT order said.
Initially, the disgruntled candidates had moved Delhi High Court, which asked them to approach the CAT. “When the matter went to Delhi High Court, the NTA had objected to the high court’s jurisdiction to admit the matter. The NAT has accepted the CAT’s jurisdiction. Now it will submit its reply,” Anushree Kapadia, the counsel for the candidates, said.
The preliminary test was held by the NTA in December 2023. Several candidates alleged that they could not take the test as the exam centres were far away from their preferred locations. Though 89,657 candidates had registered for the test, only 33,228 appeared.
The NTA declared 10,474 candidates eligible to take the Mains exam. The exam was held on January 25 last year. The notification for the test had said it would be held in pen-and-paper mode but the questions came in a computer-based format.
According to the NTA, “some candidates received admit cards with centre details of the preliminary examination held on December 21, 2023, initially”. Later, the NTA sent fresh admit cards but many candidates had already missed the test. The NTA held a retest for 1,037 such candidates on February 5 but only 258 appeared. Several candidates alleged that they missed the retest as the NTA did not issue any public notice.
The candidates also alleged discrepancies in marking as the “subject-specific instruction” issued by the NTA on January 23, 2024, mentioned the provision for negative marks for incorrect answers. However, when the candidates sat for the test, every question on the computer screen displayed “Positive Mark-1/Negative Mark-0”.
The NTA declared the results of eligible candidates for interviews even as the scorecards of 239 candidates showed “Result Later”.
“The NTA has done injustice to the career of thousands of candidates,” Parikshit Grewal, the lead petitioner, said.