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(2 of 8) [CW-6454/2023]

2. The petitioner has applied for the post of Junior Judicial Assistant pursuant to the said advertisement and he was allotted Roll No.470714 and admission card has also been issued to him by the respondent. The written examinations for the aforesaid recruitment took place on 12.03.2023 and in the said written examination, the petitioner was provided OMR Sheet, however, he did not darken the bubble indicating question booklet series in the said OMR Sheet and left it blank, therefore, he has filed a representation before the respondent after few days of the written examinations with a prayer that he may be allowed to darken the bubble in the column of question booklet series in the OMR Sheet, which he has failed to mark. The request of the petitioner has not been accepted by the respondent. Hence this writ petition.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that due to inadvertence, the petitioner has failed to darken the bubble in the column of the question booklet series and the said inadvertence was bonafide, therefore, the respondent should have allowed the representation of the petitioner in the interest of justice.

4. Per contra, learned counsel for the respondent has vehemently opposed the writ petition and argued that in the advertisement as well as in the admission card, it is clearly mentioned that the candidate is required to mark question booklet series in the OMR sheet by darkening the bubble, failing which, OMR sheet shall be excluded from the process of evaluation.

6. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on record.

7. Admittedly, in the admission card, it is specifically mentioned that if any candidate fails to mark question booklet series in the OMR Sheet by darkening the bubbles in the question booklet series, his/her OMR sheet will not be evaluated.

8. The instruction No.5 of the admission card reads as under:-

"OMR Answer sheets of the candidates who do not darken the bubble of the Question Paper Booklet Series or darken multiple bubbles or by wrong method or use whitener to erase the earlier darkened bubble or spread of ink over the bubble shall be excluded from the process of evaluation."

The High Court of Telangana in Telangana State Public Service Commission vs. Pothula Durga Bhavani & Ors. : WA No.1369/2018 decided on 19/7/2021, wherein, the candidates wrongly bubbled, double bubbled and not bubbled the personal particulars such as hall ticket number, booklet serial number, paper code and examination centre number, held that modifying and/or relaxing the instructions issued by the examination authority would result in violating the instructions issued to the candidates participating in the public examination.