Order Sheet

IN THE HIGH COURT OF SINDH, CIRCUIT COURT LARKANO

C.P.No.D-198 of 2023

(Waqar Ali Jatoi v/s.

Federation of Pakistan through Chairman FPSC and Ors)

Date

Order with signature of judge

Before:

Mr. Justice Muhammad Saleem Jessar.

Mr. Justice Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro.

1. For orders on office objections at flag "A".

2. For orders on M.A.No. 729/2023 (E/A).

3. For hearing of M.A.No. 730/2023 (S/A).

4. For hearing of main case.

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Petitioner: Waqar Ali Jatoi, present in person.

Respondents: Through Mr. Oshaq Ali Sangi, Assistant Attorney General, Pakistan a/w Muhammad Arshad, Assistant Director and Sanam Pirzada, Regional Head, Federal Public Service Commission.

Date of Hearing: 21.05.2025

Date of Order: 21.05.2025

ORDER

Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro J.- The case of the petitioner is that he applied for appearance in Combined Competitive Examination, (CCE) 2022 conducted by Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) pursuant to an advertisement dated 31.12.2021. The Petitioner was issued Admission Certificate under Role No.061609 for appearance in the examination at Sukkur Centre, scheduled to be held in the month of May, 2022. Petitioner appeared in the papers and was expecting for a good result.

2. The petitioner received a letter dated 19.10.2022, wherein he was informed that his candidature was rejected on account of his age. The petitioner filed representation with FPSC; he was called for personal hearing before Committee on 09.01.2023, wherein he appeared and presented his case that he was the employee of Sindh High Court and as per terms and condition set forth in the advertisement upper age limit was relaxed by two years was available to employees of Sindh High Court as they were Government Servants. The representation of the petitioner was rejected vide order dated 18.01.2023; hence he filed this petition contending therein that on a cut of date for submitting online application, his age was 31 years two months and 23 days; whereas after age relaxation provided for Government Servants a candidate of 32 years of age was qualified to appear in the CCE. He filed this petition praying that the impugned order dated 18.01.2023 may be set aside and his result may be declared and he may be allowed to participate in the further process, if he has passed in the examination.

3. On notice, representatives of FPSC appeared before this Court and filed reply, wherein contended that the petitioner was employee of Sindh High Court, which is an autonomous body and the benefit of upper age limit relaxation was not available to the employees of High Court, therefore, after scrutiny, the candidature of the petitioner was rejected, he filed a representation, which too was found meritless, therefore, declined.

4. Petitioner Waqar Ali Jatoi was heard in person. He contended that the employees of the High Court were being governed under Singh Judicial Service Rules, 1994, which were statutory in nature, therefore, the employees of the High Court are Government Servants and benefit of upper age limit relaxation for two years is available for them, his application was declined in an arbitrary manner by order dated 18.01.2023, therefore, such order is not sustainable under the law and is liable to be set aside.

5. Learned Assistant Attorney General, Pakistan assisted by officers of the FPSC, contended that the petitioner was not a Government Servant, but he was an employee of the autonomous body, therefore, he can not avail the benefit of upper age relaxation.

6. Heard arguments of the parties and perused the material available on record.

7. On the last date of hearing, when the matter was heard at some length, a suggestion was made that before proceeding further in the matter, the status of the result of the petitioner in the examination may be ascertained enabling this Court for further proceedings; the FPSC was directed to file result of the petitioner before this Court. Pursuant to such directions, result of the petitioner was submitted before this Court on a paper signed by Ghulam Hasan Askri, Assistant Director, Federal Public Service Commission, Islamabad, wherein it has only been mentioned that the petitioner has failed in the examination. When confronted that as to why this information has not been communicated to the petitioner so that he may not have wasted his precious time by agitating his claim before the Commission and then before this Court for rejection of his candidature on the ground of age, the representative of the Commission informed that transcript of the failure candidates is not being communicated to them. The candidates, who passed the examination are informed of the result. A careful perusal of the FPSC Rules 2018 demonstrates that the commission conducts its examination every year. Rule 12 of the FPSC Rules, 2018 prescribed that a candidate, who fails to secure atleast 40% marks in any of compulsory subjects and 33% marks in any of the optional subjects and 50% marks as aggregate shall be considered to have failed in the written examination and shall not be eligible to appear in the viva voce. Under sub-rules (28) and (29) of Rule 16 it is provided that recounting of the written papers can be done at the request of a candidate, if he files an application within one month from the date of issue of result card or marks sheet with a paid treasury challan of Rs.500/- per paper and no reevaluation of marks awarded by viva voce board shall be allowed. This provision of law negates the information given by the officers of FPSC, present today.

8. Right to acquire education and adopt trade, business or profession and access to information is the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 18, 19 & 25-A of the Constitution, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. If a young boy burns his blood to enter into the competition for achieving a position in the executive hierarchy, it is his right that he is provided requisite information regarding his abilities and eligibilities when he appears in the examination. It is the responsibility of the FPSC to inform every candidate, attending examination of the result through any of the modes by sending him information through WhatsApp or Courier etc. The stance of the officers of FPSC that the failure candidate cannot be issued marks sheets, is not supported by the law, therefore, is without substance, because the definition of the failure candidate as available under Rule 12 of the FPSC Rules, 2018 is that a candidate who secured less than 50% aggregate marks cannot be declared as pass; though the minimum qualifying marks are 33% for optional subjects and 40% marks in the compulsory subjects. If a person secured 49.9 marks and the said marks were outcome of miscalculation of his marks then non issuance of the marks sheet would definitely deny him of a valuable right to participate in the further process of the examination. The Constitution requires that individual should be dealt with in accordance with law as enunciated under Article 4 of the Constitution, casting a responsibility upon the executive authority, discharging functions in connection with affairs of the Federation or Province to act accordingly

9. The FPSC is established to conduct competitive examination, which is not a mere formality, but it is a huge responsibility because the officers so selected shape the future of nation by providing them good governance. Higher the standard of conducting examination would result in getting good bureaucrats otherwise the purpose of establishment of FPSC would not give any fruits. It is the responsibility of the commission to communicate the result of each candidate after the announcement of result, so that he may be informed of his ability and in case he finds that justice is not done to him in assessing marks, he may avail the remedy provided under sub-rule (28) of Rule 16 by filing an application for recounting of the marks.

10. For what has been discussed hereinabove, the petitioner has made out the case for issuance of directions to FPSC to issue him a transcript of his result. As far as question of candidature of the petitioner on account of his overage is concerned, he may avail such a remedy afresh if after issuance of transcript, he finds that he can participate in the further process. In the given circumstances, as discussed hereinabove, the respondents FPSC are directed to issue the transcript of the result of the petitioner within a period of 20 days from today and in case the petitioner applies for recounting of the marks of any of the papers needful shall be done in accordance with the rules. It is further made clear that under the rules, a failure candidate does not mean that a person who secured minimum passing marks of 33 and 40 in the relevant paper, but as per the FPSC Rules, a person securing less than 50% of the aggregate marks is deemed to have failed the examination; so the result presented today in the Court by no means constitute that the petitioner is failed by taking the required minimum qualifying marks in the paper, he might have passed, but could not have achieved the minimum aggregate of 50% marks. In such a situation, the respondents shall ensure that the petitioner is informed of the result. A copy of this order shall be sent through fax and Courier to the Secretary, Federal Public Service Commission, Islamabad for compliance. Copy be also provided to the office of the D.A.G for correspondence and compliance.

Petition stands disposed of in the above terms.

Judge

Manzoor