SC declines to interfere with HC order on compensation to OJS examinee
Cuttack: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere with the Orissa high court's direction to Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to pay Rs 1 lakh compensation for procedural lapses that resulted in non-evaluation of an answer of a candidate who appeared for the Odisha Judicial Service (Main) Examination.
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Jyotirmayee Dutta appeared for the OJS Main Exam 2022, results of which were declared Dec 4, 2023. She failed to qualify for the next stage by a narrow margin of five marks.
Acting on Jyotirmayee's petition, the HC directed OPSC to pay the compensationto her within 60 days on Feb 13 this year. But OPSC had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in SC challenging the HC order.
While dismissing the SLP, the bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Bijay Bishnoi said, "Having regard to the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, we are not inclined to interfere with the cost amount awarded by the high court in favour of the respondent — a young law graduate, who is aspiring to become a judicial officer."
However, the bench added, "The observations made in the impugned judgment are only in the context of the mistake detected in evaluation of one of the answers written by the respondent and the same are not to be treated as a precedent to be applied in future cases."
According to case records, Jyotirmayee filed a petition in HC on Aug 27, 2024 alleging that a question in the 'law of property' paper was left unevaluated, and its marks were not added to the total.
She asserted that if her answers had been properly scrutinised, the outcome of the examination would have been different, and she would have qualified for the next stage.
Acting on it, the HC arranged for her answer script to be independently assessed by experts from three reputed universities. Though non-evaluation of a question was confirmed and marks were awarded for it, the petitioner did not achieve the necessary marks to pass the exam.
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Accordingly, the HC dismissed the petition on Feb 13, but ordered, "However, considering the mental trauma and financial burden the petitioner has endured in pursuing this case to highlight the said lapse, this court deems it appropriate to award compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the petitioner, which shall be paid by the OPSC within a period of 60 days from the date of this judgment."
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