Cuttack: A State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report has found that the marks obtained by a candidate were manipulated for the 2023 district judge recruitment exam, Orissa high court said recently, adding that the alteration resulted in her being wrongly denied an opportunity to appear for the interview.A division bench of Justices Manash Ranjan Pathak and Sibo Sankar Mishra, in its Aug 18 judgment, held that Geetanjali Majhi had actually secured the qualifying marks of 45 in Paper-III (General English), and not 42 as shown in the result uploaded on the high court website.Taking into account the FSL report, submitted on Aug 25, 2025, the bench said, “Marks and the figures obtained by the petitioner in her Paper-III (General English) was subsequently changed by overwriting, that too in different ink.”The corrected marks made Majhi eligible for the interview. Accordingly, the bench directed the registrar general to place the matter before the Chief Justice for the setting up of a judges’ committee and conduct her interview within two weeks.It must be mentioned that none of the 240 candidates who had appeared in the exam had qualified for the interview, as per the results notified on Jan 8, 2024.Majhi had appeared in the written exam on Nov 5, 2023, for recruitment to 23 posts in the district judge cadre by direct entry from the Bar. She secured 65 out of 100 in Paper-I and 52 in Paper-II. However, she was shown to have obtained 42 in General English, three less than the minimum qualifying mark in each paper.She approached the high court after obtaining her answerscript through the State Public Information Officer, and finding that her marks did not tally with that shown on the website. She filed the petition on Feb 21, 2024, seeking correction of her marks and permission to appear in the interview. The HC sent her answerscript to the FSL, which confirmed that the marks were altered.
