The cancellation affected 513 candidates, including 348 aspirants in Srinagar and 165 in Jammu, causing inconvenience to students who had travelled from various districts to appear in the examination.
A senior JKBOPEE official told Kashmir Dot Com that the discrepancy surfaced during the mandatory pre-examination verification process.
“According to established examination protocols, sealed examination material is opened 10 minutes before the commencement of the test in the presence of supervisory staff, observers and student representatives. During this process, a significant mismatch was noticed in the candidate-specific OMR answer sheets,” the official said.
Confirming the development, JKBOPEE Chairperson Prof. Meenu Mahajan said the printed biographical details on the answer sheets did not correspond correctly.
“When our answer sheets were opened, there was a mismatch between the student’s roll number and name. An answer sheet is always student-specific, containing the candidate’s name, roll number and photograph to ensure authenticity. There was an issue at the printing level,” she told.
Prof. Mahajan said the Board decided to cancel the examination in order to safeguard the integrity of the evaluation process and merit list.
“To prevent any discrepancies in the final assessment and to protect the sanctity of the common merit list, the examination had to be cancelled,” she said.
She added that since a common merit list is prepared for the entire Union Territory, the examination could not be conducted selectively and had to be called off simultaneously at all centres.
The abrupt cancellation left many candidates distressed, particularly those who had travelled long distances from remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir to reach examination venues in Srinagar and Jammu.
Acknowledging the inconvenience caused to the aspirants, the JKBOPEE Chairperson personally interacted with candidates at the examination centre located in SP College Srinagar and assured them that their concerns would be addressed.
“I understand that the students have suffered physical, financial and emotional loss due to the cancellation, including travel expenses and the effort invested in preparation,” she said.
When asked about accountability for the lapse and the possibility of an investigation, Prof. Mahajan said a formal inquiry would be initiated immediately after her return to the Board headquarters.
JKBOPEE is expected to issue a separate notification regarding fresh examination dates after completing its assessment of the printing error and related procedural issues. (KDC)
