In Brief
The respondent, an advocate, violated examination instructions by using a pencil to underline portions of her answer sheet in the Civil Judges recruitment test. The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission invalidated her paper. The High Court condoned this violation on humanitarian grounds, noting it was inadvertent and caused no advantage. The Supreme Court reversed the High Court's judgment, holding that mandatory examination instructions must be strictly followed and cannot be relaxed, even inadvertently, as such leniency would undermine fairness, violate equality principles, and set a bad precedent for other disqualified candidates.
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