UPSC Forest Services Exam: Delhi HC asks CAT to examine candidate's plea alleging wrong answers in key

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has asked the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) to examine a candidate's plea alleging that the suggested answers to certain questions in the official answer key for Forest Service Examination 2022 were incorrect. A bench of Justice C Hair Shankar and Justice O P Shukla said the tribunal erred in rejecting the candidate's plea on grounds that a candidate has no absolute right to seek re-evaluation of his examination papers.

The court said in the present case, the petitioner was not seeking re-evaluation of examination papers, but was merely questioning correctness of the suggested answers in the model answer key released by the authorities.

Remitting the matter back to the tribunal for fresh consideration, the bench said there was no bar on a court examining such a contention and it can even interfere if the suggested answers are patently incorrect. "Of course, where the matter is arguable, or where the suggested answer in the answer key is even a plausible answer, the Court would not interfere.

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Where, however, the answer is demonstrably unacceptable, the Court would definitely interfere ex debito justitiae (as a matter of right)," said the court in the judgement passed May 29. The court, with consent of the counsel for the parties, set aside the "impugned order" dated December 12, 2025, and remitted the plea to the CAT for fresh consideration.

'Official answer key wrong', student alleges

The court asked the parties to appear before the tribunal on July 6 and requested the CAT to decide the matter as expeditiously as possible, stating that the case involved a short issue and pertained to the petitioner's candidature for entry into Indian Forest Service.

The petitioner, a candidate belonging to the OBC non creamy layer category, appeared for the Forest Service Examination 2022 conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). However, he did not clear the examination. He then approached the CAT contending that the suggested answers to two questions in General Studies Paper-I, as contained in the official answer key, were incorrect.