Synopsis

Candidates appearing in a departmental examination for promotion to Junior Judicial Assistant/Restorer challenged the “extrapolation method” adopted by the examiners after certain questions were declared out of syllabus. Some candidates were declared fail. They sought that “free marks” be awarded to all candidates for the dropped questions. The High Court dismissed the petition, holding that the extrapolation method (proportionate redistribution of marks) was not arbitrary; candidates who answered dropped questions correctly were given the benefit of the higher score; and the claim for full marks for wrongly or partially answered questions had no legal or equitable basis. The court distinguished Kanpur University v. Samir Gupta (1983), noting that in that case students had correctly answered the disputed questions, which was not the case here.

Court: High Court of Delhi at New Delhi

Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Hon’ble Ms. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora (Division Bench)

Date of Decision: 24th April 2026

Citation: W.P.(C) 5600/2026 (2026:DHC:3417-DB)

Core Law: Service Law – Departmental Examination; Conduct of examination – Dropping of questions, extrapolation method, arbitrariness.

1.  Heading of the judgment

High court of delhi at new delhi

W.p.(c) 5600 of 2026

Arvind and ors (petitioners) vs. Registrar general high court of delhi and ors (respondents)

Coram: hon’ble mr. justice v. kameswar rao and hon’ble ms. justice manmeet pritam singh arora (division bench)

Date: 24th april, 2026

2. Legal framework

Major laws and provisions involved:

• Service rules for departmental competitive examination (High Court of Delhi)

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