Candidates in public examinations must strictly adhere to mandatory OMR filling instructions; courts cannot exercise extraordinary powers under Article 226 to relax these rules or order manual evaluation for bubbling errors, as such instructions carry the force of law.

ORDER:

Heard Sri M. Surender Rao, learned Senior Counsel for Sri Srinivasa Rao Madiraju, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri P.S.Raja Sekhar, learned counsel for the respondent.

2. This writ petition is filed seeking to declare the action of the respondent Commission in not evaluating the answer script of the petitioner, who has appeared for the Main Examination of Group-II Services with Hall Ticket bearing No.2283328171, as illegal and arbitrary.

3. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that pursuant to the Notification No.28/2022 dated 29.12.2022 issued by the respondent for the posts of Group-II services, the petitioner made application in ID No.TS 2101790276. He has appeared for the examination held on 15.12.2024 and 16.12.2024 with Hall Ticket No.2283328171 by following instructions correctly in so far as it relates to Paper-1,2 and 4. However, in paper-3, while the petitioner was filling up the details on OMR sheet, the persons who have taken biometric of the candidates, entered into the room and disturbed him by questioning him about his biometric impression, thereby, though he has entered all the data correctly, when it comes to the details of Question Paper Booklet Number, he indicated the same in number in the relevant box and he was also supposed to bubbled the number in the same box and he bubbled 7 numbers out of 8 correctly, however, he has not bubbled last number of the Question Paper Booklet Number as he was disturbed by the invigilator. He came to know about it only after the results were published on 11.03.2025 and his number did not find in the General Rank List.

4. Learned Counsel for the petitioner further submits that the Public Service Commission also put up Answer/OMR sheet in the website and after verification, the petitioner found that he has written Question Paper Booklet Number in the relevant column of the OMR sheet and marked a dot in the relevant circle, but failed to bubble it completely the last digit. Basing on the Final Key published on 11.03.2025, the petitioner would get 409.822 marks if all the four papers are evaluated and would have secured around 29th rank among the candidates successful in the examination. He submits that the invigilator did not guide all the candidates properly and had the Invigilator properly verified the correctness of entries made by the candidates before signing in the space provided on the OMR sheet, the mistake committed by the petitioner could have been rectified and his answer paper could have been evaluated. He submits that for committing small mistake of not completely bubbling the last box, the respondent Commission has not evaluated the answer script of petitioner, which is illegal and arbitrary and requested to allow the writ petition by directing the respondent to evaluate the answer script of the petitioner.

5. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has relied on the following Judgment;

1. Vashist Narayan Kumar Vs. State of Bihar ¹1 (2024) 11 SCC 785

6. Learned Counsel for the respondent basing on the counter submits that the petitioner shall be vigilant and bound by the explicit terms and conditions mentioned in the notification and hall ticket which include mandatory instructions regarding the correct bubbling of particulars on the OMR sheet. The Commission has issued instructions to the candidates at Annexure-IV(b) of the Notification vide No.28/2022 dated 29.12.20