JUDGMENT :

Biswajit Mohanty, J.

This writ application has been filed by the petitioner-Odisha Public Service Commission, for short, “the OPSC” with a prayer to quash the order dated 26.8.2014 passed by the Odisha Administrative Tribunal, Cuttack Bench, Cuttack in O.A. No.2146(C) of 2014 under Annexure-5.

2. Shorn of unnecessary details, the facts of the case are as follows;

On 17.11.2011, Advertisement No.5 of 2011-12 was issued by the OPSC inviting applications in prescribed Short Form from the candidates for admission to the Odisha Civil Services Preliminary Examination, 2011 for recruitment to the Posts and Services coming under Odisha Civil Services (Category-I & Category-II) as mentioned therein. In the said advertisement, it was made clear that the Examination should be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Odisha Civil Services (Combined Competitive Recruitment Examination) Rules, 1991, for short, “1991 Rules”. It was made clear that the relevant portion of the said Rules was available in the website of the Commission. At Paragraph-15, advertisement also referred to the Website of the Commission and informed the candidates to visit the Website of the Commission for detailed information about programme of examinations, etc. On 16.12.2011, a corrigendum to the above noted advertisement was issued revising the number of vacancies. On 22.2.2012, vide Notice No.1138/P.S.C., the petitioner informed all concerned that it (OPSC) had decided to implement a uniform Negative Marking System in all competitive examinations having objective type (multiple choice) questions where Answer Sheets were to be evaluated through Computer (O.M.R. System). On 19.1.2014, the Preliminary Examination was conducted. On 18.2.2014, vide Notice No.779/P.S.C., the petitioner published model answers to question papers in the Website of OPSC inviting observations/comments from candidates/general public online by 28.2.2014. On 1.5.2014, the petitioner published correct model answers in respect of the subjects in which observations/comments were received. It also published the procedure for valuation of answer sheets in the Website of the Commission. On the same date, i.e., 1.5.2014 vide Notice No.1838/PSC, the petitioner published the results of Preliminary Examination. The said notice made it clear that 5823 candidates have been provisionally qualified/selected for admission to Odisha Civil Services (Main) Examination and roll numbers of these candidates were available in the Website of the OPSC. It also made clear that the selected candidates were required to furnish the applications online through proforma application form for the Main Examination. Vide Notice No.2052/P.S.C. dated 14.5.2014, it was notified by the petitioner that online applications for applying to sit in the Odisha Civil Services Examination, 2011 would be available till 20.6.2014. The last date for receipt of print-out/hard-copy of online applications along with copy of specified documents/ certificate was on 30.6.2014. It was also made clear that the petitioner had decided to conduct the Odisha Civil Services Main Examination during September, 2014. Vide Notice No.3349/P.S.C. dated 4.7.2014, the petitioner, in consideration of difficulties faced by some candidates in remote rural areas extended the last date for submission online application form for admission to Odisha Civil Services Examination, 2011. Vide Notice No.3605/P.S.C. dated 10.7.2014, the petitioner notified that it was going to conduct the Odisha Civil Services Examination (Main Examination), 2011 from 6.9.2014 to 30.9.2014 at five zones of the State.

3. It is at this juncture on 30.7.2014, one Priyambada Das (opposite party no.1) filed O.A. No.2146(C) of 2014 before the learned Tribunal with prayer that the learned Tribunal should set aside the grace marks awarded by the OPSC in the Preliminary Examination and accordingly, set aside the results of Preliminary Examination and OPSC be directed to publish the