Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court has strongly rebuked the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for refusing to acknowledge its mistake in the answer sheet evaluation process of a judicial service aspirant.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Vijay Bishnoi was hearing an OPSC petition, challenging Orissa High Court’s order directing it to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the affected candidate for the distress caused to her due to the error during evaluation.
The top court dismissed OPSC’s petition, saying that it should be held accountable for the mistake.
“You, as an examination body, commit these kinds of blunders — you should be taken to task. How will the young generation have faith and trust in you? This Commission is adamant. Some arrogant elements are sitting there… You are still adamant, saying that there is no mistake… Commission thinks too high of itself,” Justice Kant said.
Jyotirmayee Dutta, the candidate in question, had taken the written test for Odisha Judicial Service exam in September 2023, but failed to qualify by just 5 marks.
Dutta learnt later that one of her answers — to a question in the Law of Property paper — had not been evaluated at all, while marks awarded to her other answers were below her expectation.
The candidate then moved Orissa HC, seeking re-evaluation of her answer sheet in the Law of Property paper.
The high court ordered an independent assessment of her answer script by experts from three reputed universities in Odisha.
The re-evaluation confirmed that one of Dutta’s answers had, indeed, been overlooked. Even after marks of that missed answer were added, she could not qualify in the exam.
