NEW DELHI: Police has told a Delhi court that the person who had allegedly put a caste-based question in the exam conducted by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) for recruiting primary teachers has been removed from the board's paper setters panel.
The submission was made before Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra who was hearing a complaint seeking action against the DSSSB chairman and erring officials of the examination committee under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The police said in its status report that during the course of inquiry it was revealed that the DSSSB had placed a notice on its website in which it was mentioned that during the evaluation process, the question will not be evaluated.
"It has also tendered regret for hurting sentiments of the section of the society. Besides, the DSSSB has disengaged the question paper setter from its panel of paper setters.
"During inquiry it was revealed that the procedure of paper setting was highly confidential and secretive in nature and the contents of the paper were not shared with the DSSSB officials. The contents of the paper are revealed for the first time before the candidates only," they said.
The police however said that the board did not disclose the name or identity of the paper setter who had put the caste-based question.
The court has put up the matter for further hearing on April 28.
The complaint filed in October 2018 by advocate Satya Prakash Gautam claimed that a caste-based question was asked in the exam conducted on October 14, 2018, by the DSSSB.
Gautam said in the complaint that DSSSB officials by putting caste-based question has offended the sentiments of the scheduled caste community.
The police had earlier informed the court in January last year, that the DSSSB had conducted an internal enquiry in the matter and it was decided that the question paper setter was disengaged from the panel of paper setters working for DSSSB.
They said that the board has sensitized all paper setters to ensure that question paper does not have any question having casteist and religious undertones.
The board had issued a notice after media reports of the alleged casteist question came out in 2018, saying that the question having casteist undertone appeared due to an "inadvertent error".
It had clarified that the procedure of paper setting was highly confidential and secretive in nature and the contents of the paper are not shared with the board officials and the contents of the paper are revealed for the very first time before the candidates only.
"The appearance of any such question which may have unintentionally hurt the sentiments of any section of the society is deeply regretted. During evaluation process, this question shall not be evaluated for the purpose of preparation of results. The board is taking necessary corrective measures to sensitize its paper setters and suitable action is being taken to ensure that such incident is not repeated in future," it had said.
However, Gautam filed another complaint on August 19, 2019, against DSSSB chairman and other erred police officials alleging the incident was repeated again.
He claimed in the second complaint that caste-based question was again asked in the exam conducted by the DSSSB for primary teacher recruitment examination on August 18, 2019.