The Supreme Court has come down heavily on the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for failing to acknowledge a clear error in the evaluation of a judicial service aspirant’s answer sheet.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Vijay Bishnoi was hearing OPSC’s appeal against an Orissa High Court order directing the Commission to pay ₹1 lakh in compensation to the affected candidate, Jyotirmayee Dutta, for the distress caused by its oversight.

Dismissing the petition, the apex court underscored the need for accountability.

“You, as an examination body, commit such blunders — you must be taken to task. How will the young generation trust you? This Commission is adamant. Some arrogant elements are sitting there... You still insist there's no mistake. The Commission thinks too highly of itself,” remarked Justice Kant.

Dutta had appeared for the Odisha Judicial Service written exam in September 2023 but missed qualifying by just five marks. Upon review, she discovered that one of her answers in the Law of Property paper had not been evaluated at all, and marks awarded for other answers appeared inconsistent.

She approached the Orissa High Court, which directed an independent assessment of her answer sheet by academic experts from three reputed universities in the state.

The reassessment confirmed her claim: one answer had indeed been left unchecked. However, even with the corrected marks, she still fell short of the qualifying cut-off.

Despite this, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s compensation order, holding OPSC accountable for the lapse and the undue hardship caused to the candidate.