UPTET : Allahabad Highcourt Judgement regarding Mistakes in OMR etc.

UPTET : Allahabad Highcourt Judgement regarding Mistakes in OMR etc.

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD

Court No. 30

Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 34295 of 2012
Anil Kumar Mishar
Vs.
State of U.P. and another

Hon'ble V.K.Shukla,J.
Petitioner has rushed to this Court with request to issue writ in the nature of certiorari quashing the order dated 26.12.2011 passed by respondent no. 2.
Petitioner had applied for consideration of his candidature for Teacher Eligibility Test-2011 for Junior Primary Level Examination under General Category. Petitioner appeared and claims that he was provided question booklet of ''A' series and further submits that due to inadvertence mistake has been committed in OMR answer sheet no. 148045 as in the question booklet as provided code ''B' has been filled up in place of Code ''A'. 
Earlier before this Court Bunch of writ petitions have been filed, the leading one being Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 71563 of 2011 (Lalit Mohan Singh Vs. State of U.P. and others), pointing out large scale illegalities being there and this Court considered the matter at length, proceeded to dispose of said writ petition with following directions: 
29. In the facts and circumstances, in view of discussion made above, I dispose of these writ petitions with the following directions: 
(I) Question No.121, Series 'B', J.L.E. contain all wrong options and, therefore, it shall be treated a wrong question. Consequently the marks in respect of Question no. 121, Series 'B', J.L.E. shall be allotted to all candidates who have appeared in the concerned test. This direction shall simultaneously apply to corresponding question in 
remaining Series namely, 'A', 'C' and 'D' in J.L.E. 
(II) In respect of Question no.125, Series 'B' JLE, the candidates answering any of the options i.e., 'B' or 'C' shall be awarded marks. This direction shall simultaneously apply to corresponding question in remaining Series namely, 'A', 'C' and 'D' in J.L.E. 
(III) In respect of Question No. 142, Series 'B' JLE, the candidates who have answered any of the options i.e., 'A' or 'D' shall be awarded marks. This direction shall simultaneously apply to corresponding question in remaining Series namely, 'A', 'C' and 'D' in J.L.E. 
(IV) Revised opinion of the Board with respect to Questions shown in the charts in para 5 above (other than asterisk marked) shall not affect adversely the result of the candidates already declared successful merely for the reason of change of opinion of the Board vis a vis correct option. 
(V) All the candidates who have attempted these questions and have answered by referring to one of the two options, namely, the one which was correct as per initial Model Key Answer or that which is now correct as per the revised opinion, the candidates in both the events shall be awarded marks and their result shall be prepared 
accordingly. 
(VI) The Board shall publish a notice at least in four newspapers of different languages having wide circulation at the State level informing all concerned that in case any candidate has any grievance regarding UPTET Examination, 2011, about assessment etc., he may register his complaint by submitting application along with process fee of Rs. 100/per application (by cash or by demand draft) within 15 days from the date of publication in the newspapers. 
(VII) The Board shall entertain all applications of the candidates raising their grievance regarding assessment etc. and shall look into their grievance and take a decision thereon within a week from the date of receipt of such application. Such decision shall be communicated to the candidate concerned within a week thereafter either by placing information on internet or on mail address given by the candidate or by registered post. 
(VIII) The candidates who are already declared successful, their result shall not be affected to their prejudice but in case in view of the directions give above regarding certain questions, if their marks are to be increased, the same shall be given due credit. 
(IX) The revised result as a consequence of compliance of above directions shall be uploaded on internet and shall be given due publicity at the earliest." 
Petitioner thereafter applied and petitioner has been informed that he has received 38 marks. Now petitioner has rushed to this Court contending therein that due to inadvertence he had incorrectly filled up booklet code on the question booklet as such correction be carried out and answer sheet be rechecked accordingly. 
On the matter being taken up today, Sri J.P.N.Singh, Advocate appearing with Sri Anand Kumar Pandey, Advocate submits that his OMR Sheet is liable to be rechecked on the basis of question booklet ''A' and authority has erred in law by not correcting the same, whereas this was a case of human error, as due to inadvertence Code "B" had been mentioned as such writ petition in question deserves to be allowed. 
Countering the said submission Sri Neeraj Upadhya, Advocate representing State on the other hand contended that such error cannot be corrected, and rectified as of now inasmuch as petitioner himself has faulted in filling the incorrect code in OMR answer sheet no. 148045 as booklet code ''B' in place of Code ''A' and it is practically impossible to accept the request of the petitioner looking to the number of candidates who have undertaken the text and as far as earlier directives are concerned inquiry is in respect of illegalities committed at the level of respondents and at no point of time said judgment has given liberty to correct error committed in the booklet, as such writ petition deserves to be dismissed. 
After respective arguments have been advanced factual situation which has so emerged in the present case that large number of writ petitions have been filed before this Court complaining illegalities which has been committed by the respondents and this Court has taken note of broadly the issues raised and thereafter this Court on 16.07.2011 proceeded to give direction. It is true that this Court gave liberty to candidates in case they have any grievance regarding UPTET Examination 2011 about assessment etc., they may register complaint by submitting application along with process fee of Rs. 100/per application (by cash or by demand draft) within 15 days from the date of publication in the newspapers and the Board shall entertain all applications of the candidates raising their grievance regarding assessment etc. and shall look into their grievance and take a decision thereon within a week from the date of receipt of such application. Such decision shall be communicated to the candidate concerned within a week thereafter either by placing information on internet or on mail address given by the candidate or by registered post. Said judgment and order cannot be stretched to permit even error committed by examinee to be corrected, the request for correction has to be confined qua any illegality committed by respondents, and said situation was to be remedied by correcting their records qua evaluation/assessment etc and nothing beyond the same. 
In the present case petitioner, himself is responsible for such a situation by filling incorrect as Code ''B' in place of Code ''A' on the question booklet as such no relief or reprieve can be accorded to the petitioner. OMR sheets are checked by computer and the moment OMR sheet is permitted to be erased by erasing Code "B" and putting Code "A" computer would refuse to accept the same. Correction on OMR sheet is not practically feasible and mannual examination, in such large examination is also not feasible. 
Consequently, present writ petition is dismissed. 
Dated 19th July, 2012 
Dhruv

Source : http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/WebShowJudgment.do?judgmentID=1970588