The Crossbill News Desk
Jharkhand’s decision to cancel 44 recruitment examinations over alleged irregularities has run into a legal hurdle, with the Jharkhand high court on Thursday (August 20) placing an interim stay on the state government’s August 18 order.
The stay has added a new dimension to the controversy that triggered weeks of student and youth protests across the state.
The high court acted on petitions filed by around 450 candidates who had cleared the examinations and faced the prospect of losing their jobs or appointments following the government’s blanket cancellation order. The state government has been directed to file its response by the next hearing on September 15.
According to advocate Kumar Harsh, who represents some of the petitioners, candidates affected by the cancellation will also have to submit affidavits stating that they will accept and be bound by any adverse order if they are found to have been involved in examination irregularities.
The petitioners have argued that while candidates found guilty of wrongdoing can face action, cancelling the results of all successful candidates would be unjust. Some of those who cleared the examinations had already joined government service.
“It is true that those who are already in service might have felt injustice being done. Let’s see what happens now, ” JMM MP Mahua Maji told ANI Thursday.
The 44 examinations covered by the government’s cancellation order include recruitment tests conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC), Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) and outsourced agencies. They include the JSSC-CGL and examinations in which TSR Data Processing Private Limited was involved, including tests going back to 2014.
The cancelled examinations include recruitment processes for the JPSC 11th to 13th civil services examinations and posts such as drug inspectors, assistant professors, deputy collectors, dental doctors, assistant engineers, civil judges, additional public prosecutors and forest range officers, among others. Thursday’s interim stay covers all these examinations.
The government had justified its decision by citing findings of the state’s Criminal Investigation Department and a Special Investigation Team. However, the move also led to protests by around 2,000 people, particularly candidates recruited through the JSSC-CGL, who feared the loss of their jobs despite having no alleged role in any malpractice.
The court’s intervention comes as the student and youth agitation, which had been underway since July, was temporarily suspended after the government announced the cancellations. The protesters had demanded action against those responsible for alleged irregularities and the cancellation of examinations they considered compromised.
“We are not ending our agitation, we are deferring it,” Ravindra Paswan of the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch, one of the two organisations leading the protests, said after the government’s announcement.
He had demanded that the Soren government ‘expose all exam mafias’ and cancel the results of all compromised examinations within two months, warning that the agitation would resume otherwise.
The Reform Manch described the government’s announcement as a victory for students “at the first stage” and later announced that it would keep its agitation on hold for two months.
The JPSC JSSC Abhyarthi Nyay Manch, the other organisation involved in the protests, also called off its agitation.
Meanwhile, the examination controversy has reached the Supreme Court. Social activist Harisharan Devgan has filed a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into recruitment irregularities in Jharkhand and has sought the transfer of the investigation from the state to the Union government, Live Law reported.
The Hemant Soren government has also proposed approaching the Jharkhand high court for the setting up of fast-track courts to examine allegations of irregularities in the JPSC and JSSC examinations, which had become the immediate trigger for the month-long protests. In addition, the state has constituted an examination reforms committee headed by IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal.
With the high court now putting the cancellation order on hold and the Supreme Court being approached for a CBI investigation, the issue remains far from settled.
The legal challenge has also reopened the possibility of renewed mobilisation by students and youth groups, who have only deferred, rather than withdrawn, their agitation.
The stay has added a new dimension to the controversy that triggered weeks of student and youth protests across the state.
The high court acted on petitions filed by around 450 candidates who had cleared the examinations and faced the prospect of losing their jobs or appointments following the government’s blanket cancellation order. The state government has been directed to file its response by the next hearing on September 15.
According to advocate Kumar Harsh, who represents some of the petitioners, candidates affected by the cancellation will also have to submit affidavits stating that they will accept and be bound by any adverse order if they are found to have been involved in examination irregularities.
The petitioners have argued that while candidates found guilty of wrongdoing can face action, cancelling the results of all successful candidates would be unjust. Some of those who cleared the examinations had already joined government service.
“It is true that those who are already in service might have felt injustice being done. Let’s see what happens now, ” JMM MP Mahua Maji told ANI Thursday.
The 44 examinations covered by the government’s cancellation order include recruitment tests conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC), Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) and outsourced agencies. They include the JSSC-CGL and examinations in which TSR Data Processing Private Limited was involved, including tests going back to 2014.
The cancelled examinations include recruitment processes for the JPSC 11th to 13th civil services examinations and posts such as drug inspectors, assistant professors, deputy collectors, dental doctors, assistant engineers, civil judges, additional public prosecutors and forest range officers, among others. Thursday’s interim stay covers all these examinations.
The government had justified its decision by citing findings of the state’s Criminal Investigation Department and a Special Investigation Team. However, the move also led to protests by around 2,000 people, particularly candidates recruited through the JSSC-CGL, who feared the loss of their jobs despite having no alleged role in any malpractice.
The court’s intervention comes as the student and youth agitation, which had been underway since July, was temporarily suspended after the government announced the cancellations. The protesters had demanded action against those responsible for alleged irregularities and the cancellation of examinations they considered compromised.
“We are not ending our agitation, we are deferring it,” Ravindra Paswan of the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch, one of the two organisations leading the protests, said after the government’s announcement.
He had demanded that the Soren government ‘expose all exam mafias’ and cancel the results of all compromised examinations within two months, warning that the agitation would resume otherwise.
The Reform Manch described the government’s announcement as a victory for students “at the first stage” and later announced that it would keep its agitation on hold for two months.
The JPSC JSSC Abhyarthi Nyay Manch, the other organisation involved in the protests, also called off its agitation.
Meanwhile, the examination controversy has reached the Supreme Court. Social activist Harisharan Devgan has filed a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into recruitment irregularities in Jharkhand and has sought the transfer of the investigation from the state to the Union government, Live Law reported.
The Hemant Soren government has also proposed approaching the Jharkhand high court for the setting up of fast-track courts to examine allegations of irregularities in the JPSC and JSSC examinations, which had become the immediate trigger for the month-long protests. In addition, the state has constituted an examination reforms committee headed by IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal.
With the high court now putting the cancellation order on hold and the Supreme Court being approached for a CBI investigation, the issue remains far from settled.
The legal challenge has also reopened the possibility of renewed mobilisation by students and youth groups, who have only deferred, rather than withdrawn, their agitation.
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