Supreme Court of India· 09 September 2026

Is an examination question or answer tested as it stands, not as it ought to have been framed?

UTTAR PRADESH SUBORDINATE SERVICE SELECTION COMMISSION v. ASHOK YADAV & ORS

2026 INSC 991
Coram: Justice Manoj Misra · Justice Vijay Bishnoi

🔖 Save this judgment 📬 Get today's judgments

View the original judgment PDFFree to read. To download it — or the LexStreak typeset copy with the headnote and Points of Law — create an account; downloads are part of the Pro plan.

Answer

An examination question or answer is tested as it stands, not as it ought to have been framed.

Yes. The Court must consider only whether the question or answer, as it stands, is correct — not what it ought to have been. A candidate cannot contend that a question should have been differently drafted; if the question and its answer, as they stand, do not suffer from a glaring mistake, the Court cannot read them as something else merely because that would have made more sense.

Headnote

Judicial review — Examination answer keys — Scope of interference — Presumption of correctness — Glaring mistake standard — Judicial review — Examination answer keys — Standard for interference — Held: A challenge to an answer key succeeds only where the mistake is so glaring that no inferential reasoning is needed to show it. The court does not itself re-evaluate the answer, and any doubt is resolved in the examining body's favour. (¶20, 22) Judicial review — Correction of a question or answer — When interference is warranted — Held further: The Court may exclude a question shown to be incorrect, or admitting two correct answers among the options given, and may direct marks for the correct answer instead. Absent a glaring mistake, the examining body's chosen answer stands. (¶22, 32) Judicial review — Question read as it stands — Disposition — Held further: An examination question or answer is tested as it stands, not as it ought to have been framed. Finding no such glaring mistake here, the appeal was allowed and the High Court's review order set aside. (¶29, 30, 33)

Headnote

You've used your free headnotes this month

The answer above and the Court's own paragraphs stay free. LexStreak's full headnote on this judgment needs an account — a free one opens it again.

Create my free account

In the Court's own words

Paragraph 29Misreading a question, or reading something into a question, often results in a wrong answer. Very often questions are framed to confuse a candidate so that only an alert mind picks up the requisite nuances of a question for rendering a proper answer. The examinee / candidate cannot say that the question ought to have been drafted like this or that. Therefore, while considering whether the question or answer is correct, the Court must only consider whether the question or answer as it stands is correct or not and not what it ought to have been. If the question and its answer, as they stand, do not suffer from a glaring mistake, the Court cannot hold that it should be read and understood as something else than what it actually is only because, in the opinion of the Court, it would have made more sense.

One judgment a day. That's the whole habit.

Read the full text of UTTAR PRADESH SUBORDINATE SERVICE SELECTION COMMISSION v. ASHOK YADAV & ORS — and get the Supreme Court's output as a five-minute daily read, with plain-language headnotes and the questions each judgment settles.

Create my free account

Free forever plan · 30 seconds · data stays in India

Open the full judgment →

Also decided in this judgment

Does a challenge to an answer key's correctness require a mistake so glaring that no inferential reasoning is needed to establish it?Is an examination question shown to be incorrect, or one admitting two correct answers among the options given, liable to exclusion from evaluation?

Plain-language answer prepared by the LexStreak Editorial Desk — verify against the judgment. Source: Supreme Court of India. Corrections