10 years on, disabled man wins fight over 1 mark in irrigation dept exam; Uttarakhand HC orders selection after answer key error confirmed

DEHRADUN: Appearing for Uttarakhand subordinate service selection commission (UKSSSC) exam about a decade ago, Sandeep Kumar - with 57% disability - had missed qualifying for the Group C Seenchpal (irrigator) position in the irrigation department by 0.25 mark due to an alleged incorrect answer.

But Kumar - then in his 20s - believed he had been unfairly marked, since his answer was correct.

He persevered through years of legal struggle to have the correct answer eventually acknowledged by UKSSSC.The contested question was: "Where did Frederick Smetacek establish a butterfly museum?" Although Kumar answered "Bhimtal", the official answer key listed "Saatal" as the correct answer, resulting in "deduction of 1.25 marks" for Kumar, which led to his disqualification.

But, when the same question appeared in another UKSSSC exam for the Secretariat Security Cadre post, "Bhimtal" was marked as the correct answer.Pulling up the commission, Uttarakhand high court on Friday directed the state to provide appointment to Kumar "within five weeks". The division bench of Chief Justice G Narendar and Alok Mahra stated: "It is the duty of the commission not to blindly rely on the experts' opinion and instead devise a mechanism to counter-check, especially on questions relating to geographical relations of the place."