- (1.) Heard Sri R. K. Ojha, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Prakash Chandra Tripathi and other learned counsels for the petitioners and Sri A. K. S. Parihar, learned standing counsel for the State respondents. Facts:-
(2.) Briefly stated facts of the present case are that pursuant to advertisement No. 01 of 2016 inviting applications for recruitment on the post of Trained Graduate Teachers, the petitioners submitted applications. They were issued admits cards. They appeared in the written examination. The OMR (Optical Mark Reader) Answer sheet for written examination was in two parts, briefly as under:- Part-I (i)Name of the two subjects attempted. (ii)Test booklet series. (iii)Roll Number. (iv)Subject Code. (v)Questions booklet series. Part-II (i)Questions on four subjects, namely Geography, History, Economics and Civics in separate blocks each containing 63 questions with multiple answer choice.
(3.) The Answer sheet contained instructions / advisory which are reproduced below:- "IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS FOR MARKING RESPONSES ON ANSWER SHEET 1. Use only Black Ball Point Pen for darkening the circles. 2. Candidate must fill the Roll No. , Subject Code and Question Booklet series (A,B,C or D) in the answer sheet failing which his candidature will be automatically be rejected. 3. Signature should be made within the box. 4. Darken only one circle for each question out of the 4 options as explained below:- Correct Method of Marking Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wrong Method of Marking Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Marking should be DARK and should completely fill the circle so that letter/ number inside the circle is not visible. 6. Make marks only in the spaces provided. Please do not make any stray mark on the answer sheet. 7. Rough work, if any must be done on the specified place of the question booklet. 8. Do not fold the Answer Sheet. It may lead to difficulty in evaluation. 9. Answer sheet will be processed by electronic means. Invalidation of Answer Sheet due to incomplete / incorrect filling will be the sole responsibility of the candidate. 10. Please handover the Answer Sheet to the invigilator before leaving the examination hall. 11. Overwriting or erasing will be treated as multiple marking and no mark for that question would be awarded 12. Please do not right or mark on this answer paper outside the demarcated areas. It may invalidate your Answer Sheet. 13. Please see the method of marking your Subject Code, Roll No. and Booklet Series. " ;