Rajasthan Public Service Commission vs Pradeep Bera S/o Sahadev Bera

Recruitment to the post of Lower Division Clerks under

the Rajasthan Subordinate Offices Ministerial Service Rules 1999,

Rajasthan Ministerial Service Rules 1970 and Rajasthan Public

Service Commission (Ministerial and Subordinate Services) Rules,

1999 was initiated when RPSC issued an advertisement inviting

applications from eligible candidates on 15/09/2013. By a

corrigendum dated September 30, 2013 the number of posts

advertised were increased.

The model answer-key was uploaded on 18/11/2016.

The concern in the writ appeals is only one question, being

number 65. The same was ''A prism splits an incident white light

into a band of seven colours. The colour in the centre of this band

is''. Four options were given to the candidates being (1) Blue, (2)

Yellow, (3) Green & (4) Red. As per the model answer-key, correct

answer was Yellow. Some candidates filed writ petitions pleading

that the colour Green was the correct answer and relied upon the

acronym VIBGYOR which we have heard since childhood, to make

good the point.

Pursuant to the decision dated February 22, 2017 in

SBCWP No.2499/2017 : Dilip Kumar Mehta Vs. State of Rajasthan,

a three member expert committee comprising Professor & Head of

the Department (Physics), Birla Institute of Technology & Science,

Pilani, Professor and Head of the Department of Physics,

University of Rajasthan, Jaipur and Professor & Head of the

Department of Physics, Malviya National Institute of Technology,

Jaipur was constituted. The report by the three member expert

committee was that colour Yellow was the right answer.

The second round of litigation ensued when the

correctness of the opinion by the expert was gone into by the

learned Single Judge vide impugned decision dated 09/10/2017.

Those who were urging that colour Green was the

correct answer placed reliance upon a text book of Class 10 th

published by the National Council of Educational Research &

Training. The writ petitioners also relied upon the information

received from NCERT under Right to Information Act, as per which

information, colour Green was the correct answer. The writ

petitioners also relied upon the information received from the

Indian Academy of Sciences under Right to Information Act, as per

which, the colour Green was the correct answer. They also relied

upon the information received from the National Institute of

Technology, New Delhi under Right to Information Act . The

information was that colour Green was the correct answer.

Considering the material placed, the learned Single

Judge has allowed the writ petitions.

Aggrieved by the decision, RPSC and several other

affected candidates have come up in appeals.

In matters relating to Sciences, court interference has

to be minimal and especially when a body of experts in the

relevant field have given their opinion. But since the writ

petitioners relied upon the material which emanated from credible

institutions it has become the compulsion of the court to deal with

a little deeper into the matter.

As is well known to all, when a beam of white light

passes through a prism, it splits into different colours and the

visible spectrum i.e. the principal colours are Violet, Indigo, Blue,

Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. The acronym is VIBGYOR. In the

sequence, Green colour comes at the middle, but the issue has to

be seen with reference to the spectrum because seven colours do

not have equal band width.

We go by the text book cited by the writ petitioners on

the subject. We firstly refer to the text book for Class-11

published by the National Council of Educational Research &

Training. Unit-II of the book at page number 35 brings out that to

the human eye the visible spectrum is seen from the wave length

400-750. Wave length 400 commences on side of the colour

Indigo and at the wave length 750 one can see the extreme of the

Red colour. The pictorial illustration of the spectrum at page 35

shows that at the centre of the spectrum commences the colour

Yellowish-Green turning into Yellow. Thus, the text book in

question brings out that to the visual eye, it is the colour Yellow

which is seen at the centre of the spectrum.

Text book published by the Board of Secondary

Education, Rajasthan for Class-X explains the concept in similar

words by bringing out that though the sequence of the colours

correspondence to the acronym VIBGYOR but at the centre of the

spectrum what the eye sees is the colour Yellow.

Similarly, the book published by the Board of Senior

Secondary Education, Rajasthan for Class-XII at page 265 brings

out the same. The reason is obvious. Each colour in the spectrum

does not occupy equal segment of the wave length. The Violet

colour occupies the wave length between 400-450. The colour

Indigo occupies the wave length between 450-460. Blue between

460-500. Green from wave length 500 and somewhere before the

middle of the span of the wave length of the spectrum starts

turning Yellowish-Green, and at the centre of the spectrum at

wave length 570, the colour becomes distinctly Yellow which lasts

till wave length at 590, where Orange colour started till wave

length 620 and thereafter the colour Red from wave length 620 till

Of course, as colours merged into each other there is a hue

of the two colours to be seen; for example, Bluish-Green,

Greenish-Yellow, Yellowish-Orange and Orange-Red.

The information received by the writ petitioners under

the Right to Information Act is highly suspected for the reason the

information is given by the Public Information Officer and there is

no evidence as to whether the Public Information Officer supplied

the same.

Having referred to the standard text book published

and scientific literature available hereinabove, the court ought not to have lightly interfered with the opinion of the experts. We note

that the impugned judgment has not noted the scientific data i.e.

wave length of the spectrum commencing from wave length 400

upto wave length 720 and the fact that the seven colours do not

occupy equal segment of the spectrum.

Writ appeals are allowed. Impugned judgment dated

09/10/2017 is set-aside. We declare that the answer in the model

key, which was confirmed by the Experts being colour Yellow, is

the correct answer.

The results need not be revised as directed by the

learned Single Judge. There shall be no order as to costs in the

appeals.