In a significant ruling, the Odisha High Court on Tuesday set aside the Odisha Judicial Service (OJS)-2015 (Prelim) Examinations and directed the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to conduct the tests afresh. The examination was held on May 31 this year and around 2000 law students had appeared at it for recruitment into 69 posts of civil judges in the State.
Adjudicating a batch of petitions, Justice Dr BR Sarangi quashed the preliminary examinations and directed the OPSC to conduct it afresh within six weeks. The court also asked the OPSC to hold the main examination within four weeks after publication of the preliminary examination results.
Alleging that as many 26 out of 100 questions in the examination were either wrong, out of syllabus or contained typographical and grammatical errors, 18 OJS aspirants had approached the High Court seeking its intervention. The court had earlier directed the OPSC not to publish the results of the impugned examination without the leave of the court.
Although the OPSC admitted in the court that there were ambiguities in certain questions and it was prepared to award grace marks to the students in prorate basis, the court was not inclined to give any relief to the OPSC and asked it to hold the examination afresh
“Normally, the courts do not interfere in the selection process of judicial officers. But being the Constitutional authority and seeing the glaring illegality in the process, this court was compelled to step in,” said the High Court in its ruling, adding that no fresh admit cards would be issued. Only those candidates, who had enrolled themselves for the initial examination, would be eligible for the new examination, the court said.