HC reprimands GPSC for legal battle of student who missed 1 mark: 'Your chairman-secretary considers himself above the court, why doesn't he give an affidavit despite repeated requests?'

The student has started a legal battle after she failed to score one mark in the GPSC exam. In the ongoing hearing in the High Court regarding the controversy over the answer to this exam question, the court strongly reprimanded the GPSC. The court strongly remarked that the attitude and behavior of the GPSC was merely arrogant and also threatened the Court of Contempt for ignoring the three-time directive. In the hearing of this case, the High Court has earlier questioned the paper-setters of the GPSC. 'Does your chairman-secretary consider himself above the court?' The court asked the GPSC's counsel, "Where is the resolution as per the statement you made earlier? Is your secretary waiting for this court sitting to be over? The court will not hesitate to summon your chairman and secretary to the court. Your chairman and secretary consider themselves above the court and why don't they give an affidavit despite repeated requests from the court? Are they waiting for the roster to change? Why not issue a contempt of court notice against him? Also Read: Patidar youth fights over UPSC Prelims question GPSC is not giving proper answers despite HC orders earlier It is worth noting that this is a matter of controversy over a question of economics and the GPSC is not giving a proper answer despite the High Court ordering earlier. Earlier, the High Court had also criticized the GPSC affidavit as a dust in the eye. However, in its March 20 order, the High Court gave the GPSC one more chance and asked it to file a clear affidavit. 'Enjoys powers by presenting themselves as exam managers' The GPSC did not file an affidavit as per the orders of the High Court on March 16 and 20 and hence the High Court once again expressed great displeasure. The court also remarked at one point that the GPSC claims to be a very large institution. He takes 200 exams every other day. Still, he is not ready to take responsibility for all this. He is enjoying powers only by presenting himself as the exam administrator but putting the responsibility on the paper setter. The court has given you ample opportunity by passing an earlier order, but still its attitude is just and only arrogant. The Gujarat High Court had directed the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) to produce the original text of Kautilya's Arthashastra, especially the first English translation published in 1915. The order was issued after arguments in the courtroom over the accuracy of answers to a question asked in the GPSCC exam. What was the question? The directive came after the GPSC's counsel informed the court that the disputed question was made from that particular edition of the book. In the question asked in the 2025 GPSC exam, the candidates were asked to evaluate two statements of Kautilya about the Arthashastra. The first is the book written in Sanskrit and the second one is related to the Arthashastra. Options Provided A: Only one B: Only two C:Both one and two D: None of the above. The candidate chose 'C' as his answer, but the GPSC disagreed with him. This led to a controversy over the accuracy of the answer. GCERT and NCERT books show that the answer was correct: Candidate's lawyer The candidate's lawyers submitted that the books of GCERT and NCERT show that his answer was correct. However, the GPSC did not agree with this and its lawyer insisted that the question was made only from the original text i.e. the English translation of the Arthashastra published in 1915. The High Court also directed the GPSC to disclose the identity of the paper setter who relied on this original text to prepare the question, especially when the GPSC's answer did not match with the textbooks of that school. The GPSC itself prescribes it as reference material for the candidates. GPSC failed to render that version The GPSC failed to present that version and instead produced only a PDF copy of the book. However, the GPSC said it was unable to identify the source of the PDF. In this regard, the High Court criticized the GPSC, calling it stubborn and arrogant and reprimanded it for not admitting its mistake. With no original book submitted, the court questioned the credibility of the text used by the GPSC to prepare the exam question. The court directed the GPSC secretary to file an affidavit that when the original source is not available, is it permissible to prepare questions from a book whose physical copy is not available and the source from which the PDF was downloaded is also not available? If such practice is permissible, it should also be clarified how the authenticity of such a book is determined. Candidate who was left out for one mark challenged in the High Court A candidate who was trailing by just one mark in qualifying for the second round of the recruitment process challenged the official answer-key of the GPSC. She argued that the answer given in the answer key was incorrect.