The selected candidates include 14 Chandigarh Police personnel, who were serving as constables.

The tribunal has scheduled the next hearing for February 14.

Petitioners’ counsel Ajay Tewari said various discrepancies, including the possibility that the question paper was leaked, had been reported about the exam.

The call letters sent to all eligible candidates had attached syllabus for the written question paper.

Part I of the syllabus read, “ The test will be in three languages i.e. Hindi, Punjabi and English with multiple-choice objective tests containing 70 questions of 70-minute duration covering Reasoning Ability, Numerical Ability and General Awareness”.

A clause in part II of the syllabus said “essay writing in English only up to 500 words in 30 minutes”.

Just two days before the written exam, Chandigarh Police put an alert on its website saying that the syllabus sent was not in accordance with the Standing Order and that the essay could be written in English, Hindi or Punjabi.

“The applicants, who were not proficient in English, after seeing the syllabus sent to them, spent time preparing themselves for writing an essay in English. Only after they reached the examination centre did they came to know that the essay could also be written in Hindi or Punjabi.

“UT Police’s plea that they had alerted the candidates stands nowhere. Why do you think a candidate, whose career is at stake, will be bothered to check the police website two days before the exam,” Advocate Ajay Tewari told Newsline.

The petition also stated that at least three OBC candidates had obtained sufficient marks for them to be considered in the General category.

However, they were given Other Backward Classes weightage, stated the complaint.