HC orders status quo in TRB exam case

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday ordered status quo while hearing the State government’s appeal against the quashing of cancellation of Teachers’ Recruitment Board (TRB) examination.

A Division Bench of Justices S. S. Sundar and A. M. Basheer Ahamed directed that status quo be maintained in the case and posted it for further hearing.

The State government had filed the appeal against an earlier order of the court, which quashed the TRB’s decision to cancel the examination for direct recruitment of lecturers in government polytechnic colleges. The TRB had decided to cancel the examination held in September after it was found that optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets were tampered with during evaluation.

The single judge had observed that the fraud of tampering with the marks had crept in only at the evaluation stage. With no such fraud emerging in the preliminary stage, the process could be segregated. The TRB could identify and separate the tainted mark sheets from the rest and conduct the selection process, the court said.

The TRB decided to cancel the examination in February following the scam involving OMR sheets. The scam emerged after it was found out that some of the students had scored unusually high marks. It was found that the fraud happened at the data entry level. A private agency was entrusted with the task of overseeing the evaluation.

Earlier, in a status report filed before the High Court, the TRB said that it would not involve any private agency in its recruitment process. It also said that the OMR sheets would be printed at the Government Press with barcode and CCTV camera surveillance.