Rajasthan HC Denies Relief To Govt Job Aspirants Excluded From Selection Process For Improperly Filling OMR Sheet

The Rajasthan High Court has denied relief to candidates of a public examination, who incorrectly filled their OMR sheets after failing to follow instructions, leading to the rejection of their sheets from the evaluation process. The Court said:

“It is of utmost importance that in order to preserve the sanctity of the selection process for filling up posts under public employmentthe entire process is not only clearly laid down but is scrupulously followed not only by the Examination Agency but also by the candidates.”

A division bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Ashutosh Kumar was hearing the petition filed by two aspirants who had appeared in the examination for a public post.

It was stated that they either left the OMR bubbles blank or did not appropriately darken the same. It was further stated that since the evaluation of these OMR sheets was conducted through machines, due to incorrect filling of the answer bubbles, the OMRs could not be evaluated by the machine, resulting in the exclusion of the petitioners from the selection process.

It was argued by the counsel for the petitioner that committing certain defaults while filling the OMR sheets did not warrant complete exclusion from the selection process. If the machines were not able to read the OMR sheets, the petitioners should have been given one opportunity to rectify those mistakes.

The counsel further submitted that the petitioners were meritorious and such exclusion from the selection process would affect their career prospects.

The Court did not agree with the arguments put forth by the counsel for the petitioner and highlighted that the respondents had issued instructions and detailed guidelines regarding filling of the OMR sheet which not only insisted on proper marking of the sheet but also clearly stated that a wrongly marked OMR might disrupt the evaluation process.

In this background, the Court opined on the importance of scrupulously following the examination process and the instructions laid down to preserve the sanctity of the selection process.

On the request of the counsel to allow the petitioners to correct their mistakes, the Court held that such blanket relaxation would completely derail the selection process, by not only causing inordinate delay but also raising suspicion since the practice was susceptible to misuse.

The Court made reference to the case of Union of India & Ors. v Jagdish Chandra Jat in which the Court was faced with a similar issue and had not allowed any correction in the OMR sheet.

That case had relied on a Supreme Court decision in State of Tamil Nadu and others vs. G. Hemalathaa and another in which it was held that mandatory and strict compliance with the issued instructions was of paramount importance. The Supreme Court observed that the high court did not have the power under Article 226 to modify or relax the instructions issued because exercising such power of moderation was likely to create a feeling of distrust in the process of selection of public appointments. 

In light of this analysis, the Court did not allow any correction in the OMR sheet and dismissed the petition.

Title: Payal Soni & Anr. v Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur & Anr.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 177

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