Orissa HC orders OPSC to pay Rs 1 lakh compensation for haphazard scrutiny of OJS answer sheet

The Orissa High Court on Monday directed the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to a candidate named Jyotirmayee Dutta for procedural lapses in the evaluation of her answer sheet from the Odisha Judicial Service (OJS) Examination-2022.

The case details stated that the candidate had appeared for the OJS (Main) exam and scored 53 marks in the 'Law of Property' paper, narrowly missing qualifying by five marks. She subsequently filed for a review but was handed over the answer sheets seven months after the publication of the results.

Regardless, Dutta discovered that a question worth 12.5 marks in the same paper was not evaluated. Despite her impressive scores in other papers, this oversight prevented her from progressing to the next stage.

Upon filing a petition in August 2024, the Orissa High Court had her answer script independently evaluated by experts from three reputed universities. The evaluations confirmed the non-evaluation of the question, but even after adding the missed marks, Dutta still fell short by 1.5 marks.

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However, the court took notice of the haphazard grading of answer sheets and criticised the OPSC for its arbitrary and inconsistent evaluation process.

The Division Bench of Justices Sangam Kumar Sahoo and Chittaranjan Dash emphasised that the issue was non-evaluation, not re-evaluation and that such procedural lapses undermine the credibility of the examination process.

“In any other circumstances as the one in front of us, this lapse would have gone unnoticed, potentially altering the candidate's chances of proceeding to the next round, or they could have successfully gone ahead for the next round in the selection process,” the court observed.

Although Dutta did not qualify, her case highlighted a critical flaw in the system, prompting the court to order the OPSC to adopt rigorous quality control measures in future evaluations stating that such flaws can “shake the trust placed in the examination system.”

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Meanwhile, the court awarded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the petitioner for the mental trauma and financial burden endured and also as a reminder to the OPSC, directed to ensure fairness and accuracy in its evaluations.