Patna, May 11: The high court today directed Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) to reduce the cut-off marks by 25 for clearing the preliminary test to appoint civil judges in the junior division.

The division bench of Chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit and Justice Jyoti Saran passed the order after hearing the parties — aggrieved students, the commission and the state government — at length. The order will make hundreds of students eligible to sit for the main examination of the Bihar Judicial Services 2009, conducted by the commission for the appointment of 217 civil judges (junior division).

The cut-off would now be reduced by 25 marks in each category — general, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST). The commission had published the result on March 11, 2011, after fixing the cut-off marks as 154 for general, 115 for SC and 111 for ST category. But with the order, candidates scoring 129 marks in general, 90 marks in SC and 86 in ST categories would qualify for the main examination.

The court reduced the cut-off by 25 marks after the petitioners raised a question on why 25 of the 250 questions of equal value were deleted without assigning any reason.

The court’s direction came on a bunch of petitions filed by Pankaj Kumar, Ranjeev Kumar, Ranjeet Ranjan and some others, who had failed to clear the preliminary test.

Amit Pandey, along with Kumar Brijnandan, who appeared for the petitioners, said the commission, which published the result almost 15 months after the exam, did not notify prior to the publication of the result that 25 questions had been deleted.

Defending the decision to delete 25 marks, additional advocate-general Lalit Kishore said the commission did so owing to differences of opinion between the question setters and BPSC experts.

Elated over the order, Pankaj Kumar, one of the candidates who would now qualify for the mains, told said: “It is a welcome judgment. It will pave the way for the main examination for hundreds of candidates. This will make the exam tougher and more competitive which is good for the selection of judges.”

The main examination actually tests the writing and analytical skills of the candidates.”

BPSC had conducted the preliminary exam on December 30, 2009.