NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by unsuccessful civil services aspirants challenging certain questions in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2023, particularly Paper-II (CSAT), holding that courts cannot sit in appeal over the opinion of subject experts or interfere in academic matters in the absence of arbitrariness, mala fides, or patent illegality.
A bench of Justices Amit Mahajan and Anil Kshetarpal upheld the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had earlier rejected the aspirants’ plea alleging that around 11 questions in the Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT) paper were beyond the prescribed syllabus.
"The scope of judicial review in matters relating to competitive examinations is extremely limited. The court does not sit in appeal over the decision of an examining body nor does it substitute its own opinion for that of subject experts, " the Justice Mahajan-led Bench observed.
The petitioners, who were unsuccessful candidates in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2023, had contended that the impugned questions were drawn from Class XI and XII NCERT syllabi, despite the examination rules stipulating that CSAT questions should be of Class X level.