Just a day after the Odisha High Court ordered the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) to dispose of the application pertaining to the Odisha Civil Service (Preliminary) Examination-2011, the tibunal on Tuesday scrapped the results of the Preliminary Examination that was published in June this year.
Disposing of an application filed by one Priyambada Das of Rourkela, SAT Acting Chairman SN Das quashed the results and directed the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to publish fresh results within two months after awarding pro rata grace marks to the candidates wherever required.
With this direction from the SAT, the OPSC is now in a quandary and there is confusion among the successful candidates about the Main Examination, which was scheduled to begin from September 6. Sources in the OPSC on Wednesday said the OPSC would soon take a stand after examining the SAT judgement.
Priyambada Das along with two other unsuccessful candidates had approached the SAT alleging that aspirants of some particular subjects in the Preliminary Examination were awarded full grace marks for wrong and printing mistake questions as a result many candidates benefitted by getting full marks even without attempting those questions.
Disapproving the manner in which grace marks were awarded in certain subjects, the SAT asked the OPSC to evaluate the answer sheets again and award pro rata grace marks in the wrong questions to the candidates on the basis of the marks they have obtained in remaining other questions.
It may be mentioned that following a lot of hiccups, the OPSC had conducted the Preliminary Examination in January this year after an advertisement issued in October 2011. Out of over 50,000 candidates, 5,823 were declared qualified to appear the Main Examination.