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Failed exam due to confusing questions
ASP requests Appeal Court to order rescrutiny of answer paper
An Assistant Superintendent of Police has petitioned the Court of Appeal alleging he failed to gain pass marks for promotion due contradictory and erroneous questions in the Tamil paper which his counterparts who answered the Sinhala question paper did not encounter.

The petitioner, Abdul Hassan Mohamed Nazeem, ASP (Traffic), Matara cited Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando, Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (Administration) B.M. Liyanage, the Commisioner General of Examinations and the Attorney General as respondents.

Mr. Nazeem states that in terms of the departmental order No A 15 of Sri Lanka Police an inspector on promotion to gazette rank will be appointed an Assistant Superintendent and every officer so appointed is required to pass an examination in criminal law and police orders within one year and in accounts and in Sinhala or Tamil language within two years and if an officer fails in the examination within the stipulated time frame he will be reverted back to his substantial rank of Inspector.

The examination in Law, Sinhala and Tamil will be held half yearly for officers in the administrative service. The examination in accounts, police orders and practical work will be held quarterly by the IGP or by an officer nominated by him. The petitioner states that in the examination in police orders, accounts and practical work held at the office of the IGP he obtained 62 and 66 marks respectively when the pass mark was a minimum of 60 marks. Mr. Nazeem said the criminal law paper consists of two parts containing questions on the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Ordinance and the Penal Code and Police Ordinance, which require a 60 percent pass mark in each part. He said this requirement applies only to police officers who have joined for the first time and not for officers who have served the police service and have been promoted as an ASP (gazetted officer).

Mr. Nazeem said that in any event he applied for registration for the examination. The results of the examination which was held on November 20, 2004 was released on May 6, 2005 and he obtained 64 marks and 52 marks respectively. Mr. Nazeem said that of the 124 candidates who sat the exam, only 16 obtained pass marks (including himself), in the first part, only 4 candidates obtained pass marks the second part and only one candidate obtained pass marks in both parts. He said only two candidates sat for the examination in the Tamil language and both were not successful.

He claims that the question paper in the Tamil language differed from the Sinhala paper.Mr. Nazeem states that in the Tamil paper, English terms were given within brackets to technical legal terms in Tamil, but some of the English terms were contradictory/or incorrect, whereas in the Sinhala paper the technical terms were not given in English, hence there was no confusion or contradiction.

He states that since several questions in the Tamil paper were misleading he found it difficult to answer these questions in a proper and successful manner, when compared to his counterparts who opted to sit the same examination in Sinhala. He requests the Court to issue an order to delete the questions in doubt and rescrutinize the answer script without these questions and allot marks accordingly.

Objections to be filed by October 14, 2005.

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