The Gujarat High Court has pulled up the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) for its affidavit in a case related to an Arthashastra question, calling it 'nothing but contempt'.
Justice Nirzar S. Desai expressed his dissatisfaction with the commission's response to his previous questions about the procedure for authenticating online material used in exams.
The case involves a candidate who failed to clear an exam by one mark and challenged the answer stipulated by the recruitment body for a question on Kautilya's classical treatise on economics and politics.
The high court had asked GPSC to produce the original book from which the question was framed, but the commission informed the court that the physical copy was not available and relied on an online version downloaded from the internet.
The court then asked the commission to explain whether questions could be framed from material downloaded from the internet and whether any policy existed for authenticating such material.
GPSC attempted to shift the responsibility to subject experts, but the high court did not let the commission off the hook, questioning whether there were specific provisions that absolved it of its responsibility.
The court directed GPSC to file a detailed affidavit by April 7, clearly stating whether any policy exists for authenticating material downloaded from the internet and on what basis the online material used to frame the question was treated as an authentic source.
