CUTTACK: In a significant development, the Orissa High Court has found that the marks secured by a candidate in the General English paper of the District Judge recruitment examination in 2023 were manipulated, depriving her of an opportunity to appear for the interview.
A division bench of Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak and Justice Sibo Sankar Mishra have asked the registrar general to place the matter before the Chief Justice on the administrative side and initiate steps to conduct the interview of petitioner Geetanjali Majhi for direct recruitment to the District Judge cadre from the Bar.
The bench directed that the interview process be completed within two weeks from August 18, after constitution of a committee of judges by the Chief Justice.
Majhi had appeared in the written examination conducted on November 5, 2023, for 23 District Judge posts. Although she secured 65 marks in Paper-I and 52 in Paper-II, she was shown to have obtained only 42 marks in Paper-III (General English), three marks short of the stipulated qualifying score of 45 in each paper.
She subsequently obtained a copy of her answer script from the state public information officer and found that she had actually secured 45 marks in General English. Claiming that the marks had been wrongly computed in the tabulation sheet, she approached the High Court on February 21, 2024, seeking correction of the marks and permission to appear in the interview.
The court ordered forensic examination of the answer script and the State Forensic Science Laboratory, Bhubaneswar, submitted its report in a sealed cover on August 25 last year.
The bench said the forensic report showed that the marks in the answer script had been subsequently changed “by overwriting that too in different ink” and with an addition of a short signature.
The judges observed that the report indicated “manipulation of figure (marks) in different ink as well as overwriting in different ink”. “Considering the said report and opinion... we are of the opinion that the petitioner secured ‘45’ marks... and not ‘42’ marks as uploaded in the Court’s website,” the bench held.
With the corrected score, Majhi fulfilled the eligibility criteria for the interview. The court held that she was “deprived to appear in the interview... by way of manipulation”.
Interestingly, none of the 240 candidates who appeared for the written examination had qualified for the interview according to the results notified on January 8, 2024.
