The Supreme Court has today issued notice in a petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission examination candidates challenging the order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court dismissing the plea seeking direction declaring action of neglecting mistakes that occurred in Telugu translation of at least 51 questions as arbitrary and illegal.
A divisional bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Hemant Gupta noted, “English is not a mother tongue and that is why the question paper is printed in regional language, otherwise there is no purpose for having the exams in regional language if only English has to be read.”
The petition has been filed by Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission examination candidates challenging the order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court dismissing the petition seeking direction declaring the action of the respondent neglecting the mistakes that occurred in Telugu translation of at least 51 questions in Paper-1 (General Studies) & Paper- II (General Aptitude) of Group-I Preliminary examination as arbitrary, illegal and violation of Article 14 and Article 16 of the Constitution of India and consequently, to set aside the same.
Senior Advocate P.S. Narasimha, appearing for the petitioners, submitted, “Milords this is a very interesting case, Milords this approach is very wrong, during the translation there was an error in the Telugu version and they say that you should have read English.”
Justice Gupta, however, said the High Court had observed that the English will prevail. “They say that you have not even chosen your subject of preference,” Justice Kaul added.
Narasimha submitted that the High Court referred to the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of CBSE and Anr. V. T.K. Rangarajan and Ors observed that in the NEET-UG-2018 examination in case of any ambiguity between a regional language and English, it will be English version which will be final as held by this Court, however, this doesn’t apply to our situation.
“Milord, there is just an OMR sheet, whether I read English or Telugu, they would not know,” Narasimha added.
Justice Kaul, on a lighter note, said, “Mr Narasimha you are persuading us to issue notice even when we were not inclined.”
The bench issued notice in the petition.