In the wake of objections from some lawyers, who sat the written test for direct recruitment as District Judges on July 6, that the objective type questions in Paper-I were not in Tamil, data made available to The Hindu establish that the candidates’ performance in Paper-II, which they were allowed to write in Tamil, was below standard.
A total of 2,705 candidates wrote Paper-I (consisting of 150 objective type questions) in the forenoon session at Loyola College in Chennai on July 6. Of them, only 94 scored above 50 per cent marks.
The written test in Paper-II in the afternoon session was attended by 2,688 candidates, but just five of them managed to score above 50 per cent.
In Paper-II, 1,069 candidates had scored single-digit marks.
In Paper-I, half a mark was awarded for every correct answer and quarter mark was deducted for every wrong answer. The negative marking system led to 70 candidates scoring negative marks and eight candidates scoring zero as the latter had answered 50 questions correctly and 100 questions incorrectly.
After totalling the marks obtained by the candidates in both the papers, the selection committee found that only 165 candidates had scored above 35 per cent in the aggregate and decided to invite them alone for the viva-voce scheduled to commence on July 29. Almost all the districts are represented among those selected for interview. with 46 from Chennai, 20 from Madurai, 10 from Tiruchi and nine from Coimbatore.
According to sources in the Madras High Court, the examination process was monitored by a team comprising Madras High Court judges Chitra Venkatraman, V. Ramasubramanian and M.M Sundresh. The team had taken extensive steps such as setting two different question papers - one for those with odd registration numbers and another for those with even registration numbers - to avoid scope for malpractice.
The percentage of successful candidates belonging to different caste groups in the written tests as against the percentage of their participation is as follows: A total of 1,221 (45.42 per cent) Backward Class (non Muslims) wrote the tests and 97 passed. Among 63 (2.34 per cent) BC (Muslims), six (3.64 per cent) cleared the exams successfully.
Of the 474 (17.63 per cent) Scheduled Caste candidates, 11 (6.67 per cent) passed and out of 52 Arundathiar (1.93 per cent) candidates, only one (0.61 per cent) had cleared the examination. Eleven (0.41 per cent) of Scheduled Tribe candidates wrote the tests but none of them managed to score the minimum requirement of 35 per cent marks. Among Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities, 735 (27.34 per cent) wrote the examinations and 34 (20.61 per cent) were declared pass.
In an indication of Other Caste candidates not showing much interest in occupying the office of District Judge, only 132 (4.91 per cent) sat for the examinations and 16 (9.70 per cent) passed.
Though 10 out of 23 posts of District Judges were reserved for women, only 546 women appeared for the written test as against 2,142 men. Among the women candidates, a majority of 267 belonged to BC (non Muslim), 20 to BC (Muslim), 141 MBC, 69 SC, 7 SC (Arundathiar), 4 ST and the rest of 38 under other castes category.
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