E-Paper
UPPSC inquiring into its system of giving fake roll numbers to candidates to ensure anonymity
The commission is inquiring the allotment of fake roll numbers to all the 18,042 copies of all the candidates that appeared in the mains examination.
The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) on Friday apprised the Allahabad high court that it was conducting an inquiry into the process of allotting fake roll numbers on copies of candidates of the UP Judicial Service Civil Judge (Junior Division) (Mains) Examination, 2022, to ensure their anonymity after a candidate complained that handwriting in one of his copy was not matching.
The commission is inquiring the allotment of fake roll numbers to all the 18,042 copies of all the candidates that appeared in the mains examination.
A bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Manish Kumar Nigam passed the order while dealing with the petitioner’s claim that his handwriting, consistent across all other papers, was notably absent in the English answer sheet.
Advocate Nisheeth Yadav, appearing on behalf of the UPPSC, submitted that in order to maintain the anonymity of the candidates, fake roll numbers were allotted to candidates to ensure their anonymity. While taking those steps, some mistakes might have occurred, he said.
Yadav further said the paper of the petitioner might have got exchanged with the paper of some other candidate. “The system of giving a fake roll number is a foolproof method of keeping the secrecy of the candidatures of various candidates and the mistake, if it is there, shall definitely be rectified,” Yadav added.
Earlier on June 5, the court decided that all six answer sheets of the petitioner be produced before it so that his handwriting could be matched across all the answer sheets.
“This would enable us to see whether the handwriting in the English answer sheet was his or not,” the court had said while posting the matter for hearing on June 7.
In brief, it was the petitioner’s case that he appeared in the U.P. Judicial Service Civil Judge (Junior Division) (Mains) Examination 2022 in May 2023. The results were announced on August 30, 2023 and marks were made public in November 2023.
Dissatisfied with his marks, the petitioner filed an application under the Right to Information Act in January 2024. On March 27, 2024, he received details of his marks in the six papers. Upon discovering that he had got only 47 marks out of 200 in English paper, he requested for viewing his answer sheets.
When the answer sheets were shown to him on May 25, 2024, the petitioner found that his handwriting, as in all the other papers, was not to be found in the English answer sheet. The court has fixed July 1 as the next date of hearing in the case.
