The initial result of the Preliminary Examination of CCE, 2018 was declared on 30.03.2019. However, the APSC itself had discovered that the answer key published by it is not correct and, therefore, on its own, the APSC had re-verified the answer key and came to the conclusion that some of answers in the initial answer key are not correct and, therefore, it had revisited the result and published a new answer key. As per the new answer key, 406 candidates, who had initially not qualified the Preliminary Examination for appearing in the Main examination, had also cleared the Preliminary Examination. At the same time, the APSC has also discovered that 98 persons, who had actually not cleared the Preliminary Examination, were declared as eligible for appearance in the Main Examination in the initial result published on 30.03.2019. If we add 406 persons in the list of eligible candidates, who appeared in the Preliminary Examination after excluding 98 persons, who have not cleared the Preliminary Examination but were declared as eligible for appearing in the Main Examination, then also there is a variation of around 10% in the actual number of persons, who have cleared the Preliminary Examination but have been declared as failed in the said Examination. Apart from that, in response to the direction given by this Court on 29.05.2019, the APSC had filed a common affidavit in all the 21 writ petitions and has stated that on further verification of answer scripts of Preliminary Examination of 21 candidates/writ petitioners, in consultation with the paper setters/domain experts, it was found that after
