Bilaspur HC Orders Rs 50,000 Payout Over Missing Answer Sheet Pages
The Bilaspur High Court has directed compensation of Rs 50,000 to a candidate of the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC) after discovering that four pages were missing from his mains answer sheet. The case has put the spotlight on the handling of answer scripts in state recruitment examinations.
The missing portion carried answers to questions 9 to 12, which were worth 30 marks in total.
A discovery through RTI
The candidate, Narayan Dutt, had taken the State Service examination under the 2018 recruitment notification. After clearing the prelims and taking the mains, he did not make the final list. He later filed an RTI request for his answer sheet and found that pages 17 to 20 of the General Studies Paper-5 were not there.
Signs noticed earlier
During the hearing, it was revealed that the missing pages had been noticed while the answer sheet was being evaluated, and marks of removed pages were visible. However, the candidate was not informed on time, and the probe to fix responsibility remained incomplete.
Selection cut-off argument
According to the Commission, the last selected candidate in the unreserved category had 737.5 marks, while the petitioner had 695.5. Even if the full 30 missing marks were added, the Commission said, he would still not have reached the selection level. It also relied on a satisfaction certificate signed by the candidate after he examined the answer sheet.
Court's conclusion
The court agreed that the candidate could not have been selected even with the additional marks, and so he could not be called for an interview. Nevertheless, it held that the Commission's failure to properly handle the irregularity and to inform the candidate was not justified.
The bench ordered the concerned examiner and officer to pay a total of Rs 50,000 within three months and closed the petition.
The judgment underlines the importance of safeguarding answer sheets, ensuring credible evaluation, and fixing accountability promptly whenever irregularities come to light in competitive examinations.