Cuttack, Jan. 13: Orissa High Court has refused to derail the process of conducting the personality test of Odisha Civil Service (OCS) Examination - 2011 that started yesterday.

Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) had started the process of conducting the personality test after declaring the results of preliminary and main examinations on the basis of a Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) directive.

The court declined to issue interim stay order on it, while saying that the completion of the OCS Examination - 2011 had already been inordinately delayed due to a dispute over evaluation of answer sheets of the preliminary examination.

The high court was hearing a batch of six petitions, which had challenged the OAT order for revaluation of answer sheets of the preliminary examination by awarding full marks for wrong and faulty questions (in 18 subjects) only to the candidates who had attempted them.

Four of the petitioners were among the 132 candidates who were selected in the first merit list and had appeared in the main exam, but did not find place in the second merit list that was notified after the revaluation. An interim stay order on the personality test was sought when the petitions came up for analogous hearing yesterday.

"After hearing the matter, the division bench of Justice D. H. Waghela and Justice S. C. Parija refused to grant the interim stay, but directed OPSC to allow the four petitioners who were in the first merit list to take the personality test," OPSC counsel Pradipta Mohanty told The Telegraph today.

"The court, however, clarified that the result of the four candidates will be subject to the outcome of the case, while posting next hearing on the matter to first week of February," Mohanty said.

The preliminary examination was held on January 19, 2014. The result was declared on May 2, 2014, awarding full marks to all candidates in the questions of 18 subjects in which incorrect questions were detected.

Accordingly, 5,823 candidates took the main examination which was held from September 6 to 30, 2014. But, on June 18, 2015, the tribunal ordered for revaluation of preliminary examination answer sheets, after eight applicants challenged the evaluation process.

The OPSC was directed to prepare a fresh merit list by way of awarding full marks for wrong/faulty questions in 18 subjects only to the candidates who had attempted them. Following the order, the second select list of the preliminary examination was notified on December 8, 2015.