Today, On 30th May, The Supreme Court strongly criticised the Odisha Public Service Commission for refusing to admit a clear mistake in evaluating an OJS aspirant’s answer sheet, saying, “You can’t commit such blunders and then refuse to acknowledge them.”
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday criticized the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for its unwillingness to acknowledge a mistake made during the evaluation of a judicial service aspirant’s answer sheet.
A bench consisting of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Vijay Bishnoi was reviewing a plea from OPSC challenging a High Court order that required the Commission to pay Rs.1 lakh in compensation to the affected candidate.
The Supreme Court remarked that such errors in exam evaluations should not be ignored and that the Commission must be held responsible.
Justice Kant stated,
“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 sitting there. You are still adamant, telling that there is no mistake … Commission thinks of itself too high. Case dismissed,”
The OPSC’s counsel urged the Supreme Court to remove the negative remarks made against the commission by the Orissa High Court.
Justice Dipankar Datta responded,
“Had you at the first instance accepted that ‘there is something wrong on our part and we would examine it,’ the matter would have ended,”
However, the Court clarified that the High Court’s critical comments about the Commission should not set a precedent for future cases.
It stated while dismissing the appeal,
“The observations made in the impugned judgment are in the context of the mistake detected in the evaluation of one of the question papers and are not to be treated as precedent for future cases,”
The case revolved around the 2022 Odisha Judicial Service Examination. A candidate, Jyotirmayee Dutta who took the written exam approached the Orissa High Court, arguing that she had missed the cut-off for the interview round because the evaluators failed to assess one of her answers. She fell short of the cut-off for the viva voce round by just five marks.
In her petition, she claimed that one question in the Law of Property paper had not been evaluated, which affected her total score. Had her answers been properly assessed, she believed she would have qualified.
The High Court sent the answer script to independent experts for evaluation and confirmed her claim that an answer had been overlooked by the OPSC evaluators.
However, the Court also concluded that the candidate would not advance to the interview round, as her score for the unassessed answer was insufficient to meet the cut-off.
Nonetheless, the High Court expressed serious concerns about the OPSC’s lapses, stating that such errors in evaluating judicial exams are unacceptable. It emphasized that competitive exams are crucial for shaping careers and involve years of preparation, financial investment, and personal sacrifice.
The High Court insisted that the evaluation process must meet the highest standards of scrutiny and quality control.
It ordered the OPSC to pay Rs.1 lakh in compensation to the candidate who highlighted the evaluation error. This ruling was later challenged by the OPSC before the Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal today.
The Odisha Judicial Service (OJS) Examination is a competitive exam conducted by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to recruit candidates for the position of Civil Judge in the state judiciary.
The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) is the state agency responsible for conducting civil service examinations and recruitment for various government posts in Odisha, India. It operates under the provisions of the Constitution of India and plays a crucial role in selecting candidates for administrative, judicial, and other important services in the state.
Case Title: The Chairman, Odisha Public Service Commission vs. Jyotirmayee Dutta.
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