In a landmark judgment, the court directs Bar Council of India to manually verify the OMR sheet of a candidate who inadvertently failed to mark the correct set code, despite answering correctly.
Lucknow: In a significant ruling, the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow Bench has ordered the Bar Council of India (BCI) to manually verify the OMR sheet of a candidate who was declared "Fail" in the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) due to an inadvertent error in marking the question booklet set code. The judgment was delivered by a division bench comprising Justices Shekhar B. Saraf and Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary in the case of Love Yadav v. Bar Council of India.
The petitioner, Love Yadav, who appeared for the AIBE, was declared unsuccessful due to a technical error on the OMR sheet. Despite answering the questions correctly, Yadav failed to darken the corresponding oval for the question booklet set code, leading to an incorrect machine evaluation of his answers. The court, acknowledging the error, directed the Bar Council of India to manually verify the candidate's OMR sheet.
The court observed that the successful clearing of the AIBE is mandatory for obtaining a Certificate of Practice, which allows an individual to practice law in India. The judgment emphasized the negligence of the invigilator, who failed to ensure the correct marking of the OMR sheet, as required by the examination instructions.
The court's decision was based on the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and explicitly stated that it should not be treated as a precedent. The bench ordered the BCI to reconsider its decision and, upon manual verification, if the petitioner is found to have passed, he should be declared successful and treated as a pass candidate.
This judgment highlights the importance of ensuring fairness and accuracy in the evaluation process of examinations that are crucial for a candidate's professional career. It also underscores the judiciary's role in addressing grievances arising from technical errors in examination processes.
Bottom line:-
A candidate who has inadvertently failed to darken the correct oval in the OMR sheet for the question booklet set code in the All India Bar Examination, but has otherwise answered correctly, can have their result manually verified to rectify the evaluation error. Such manual verification may lead to the declaration of the candidate as successful if they have actually cleared the examination.
Statutory provision(s): Article 226 of the Constitution of India
Love Yadav v. Bar Council of India, (Allahabad)(DB)(Lucknow) : Law Finder Doc id # 2916638
