RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh High Court on Wednesday pulled up the State Public Service Commission for gross negligence, procedural silence, and failure to notify a candidate whose mains examination answer sheet was found with several pages torn out. A bench of Justice Parth Prateem Sahu awarded Rs 50,000 in compensation to the candidate.
The petitioner, 27-year-old Bilaspur resident Narayan Datt, appeared for the State Civil Services Examination following an advertisement issued in October 2018. After clearing the preliminary examination, Datt sat for the mains examination in July 2019. However, his name did not appear in the list shortlisted candidates.
Datt filed an application under the RTI Act seeking certified copies of his evaluated answer booklets. Upon reviewing his paper for General Studies–V (Paper VII, Part II), he discovered that four pages (serial numbers 17 to 20)—carrying questions 9 to 12 worth an aggregate of 30 marks—were missing.
Datt filed representations with the Commission alleging that his answer sheets were mishandled and suppressed but received no response.
He then moved the HC via a writ petition. His counsel, Advocate Juhi Jaiswal, argued that as a constitutional recruiting body, the Commission had a duty to act transparently. Its failure to notify the candidate was a deliberate cover-up, he claimed.
Appearing for the PSC, counsel Anand Mohan Tiwari submitted records indicating that evaluators had reported missing pages in several booklets during the evaluation process in September 2019.
The Commission acknowledged that distinct tear marks were observed where pages had been ripped out of Datt’s specific answer booklet. Delivering the judgement, Justice Sahu directed the Commission to disburse `50,000 to the candidate within three months, formally disposing of the petition.