New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Friday came down heavily on the Orissa Public Service Commission (OPSC) for its refusal to admit a mistake in evaluating a judicial service aspirant's answer sheet in the 2022 Odisha Judicial Service Examination.

A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Vijay Bishnoi was hearing an appeal filed by the OPSC challenging an Orissa High Court order directing it to pay Rs 1 lakh in compensation to the affected candidate.

Expressing serious concern over the Commission’s conduct, the Supreme Court stated that such blunders in examination evaluation cannot be taken lightly and that public bodies must be held accountable.

“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 are sitting there. You are still insisting there is no mistake. The Commission thinks too highly of itself. Case dismissed,” Justice Kant remarked sharply during the hearing.

The counsel for OPSC urged the Court to at least expunge the adverse observations made against the Commission by the High Court. To this, Justice Dipankar Datta observed, “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.”

While dismissing the appeal, the Supreme Court clarified that the adverse comments made by the High Court in its judgment should not be treated as precedent. “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 bench stated.

The case arose after a candidate who took the 2022 Odisha Judicial Service Examination approached the Orissa High Court, claiming she had narrowly missed the cut-off for the interview stage because one of her answers was left unevaluated. Independent expert assessment ordered by the High Court confirmed the error.

Although the re-evaluated marks did not qualify her for the interview round, the High Court strongly criticised the OPSC for the lapse. It emphasised that such errors are unacceptable in competitive examinations, which are career-defining and involve significant personal and financial sacrifices by candidates. It further stressed that the evaluation process must meet the highest standards of diligence and fairness.

The High Court ordered OPSC to pay Rs1 lakh as compensation for the negligence, a directive that has now been upheld by the Supreme Court with its dismissal of the OPSC’s appeal.

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