Jharkhand HC Stays Jharkhand Govt Order Cancelling JPSC, JSSC Exams

Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court has stayed the State government's order cancelling the 11th and 13th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) examinations and appointments, providing relief to newly appointed officers who had challenged the decision.

The court passed the order while hearing various petitions filed by the newly appointed officers against the government's decision.

The matter was heard by Justice Deepak Roshan of the Jharkhand High Court. Advocates Indrajit Sinha and Amritansh Vats represented the petitioners before the court. The court asked the state to furnish its reply by September 15, the next date of hearing.

This development follows after the Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government released a list of 44 recruitment examinations conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) that were cancelled following irregularities, amid student protests over the issue.

The cancelled examinations include recruitment tests for drug inspectors, assistant professors, deputy collectors, dental doctors, assistant engineers, civil judges, additional public prosecutors and forest range officers, among others.

The list also includes examinations for lecturers in government polytechnics, senior scientific officers, assistant conservators of forests and various administrative and technical posts.

The government said the cancellations followed "complaints regarding irregularities in ongoing examinations conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and executed through TDPL, and based on facts brought before the government during the CID investigation.

"Following the development, the government announced several measures to address irregularities in recruitment examinations.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Soren announced that the state government had decided to cancel all activities associated with TSR Data Processing Private Limited (TDPL), including the examinations conducted, the results published and the candidates selected, and the state Cabinet also decided to cancel the JSSC-CGL examinations.

Soren also ordered a comprehensive inquiry into alleged irregularities in examinations conducted from 2014 to the present.

Aspirants had became emotional and celebrated at Jaipal Singh Stadium after the Jharkhand government accepted their demands.

While Jharkhand High Court has stayed the State government's order cancelling the 11th and 13th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) examinations and appointments; around 2,700 candidates, who recently secured government jobs through recruitment tests in Jharkhand, held a protest here on Thursday, demanding a rollback of the notifications that cancelled 22 exams and ordered a probe into 23 others over alleged irregularities. They staged the demonstration outside the state secretariat, claiming that they were recruited after clearing the examinations fair and square.

The government's orders came amid a 25-day students' agitation over alleged irregularities in the recruitment exams.

"Around 2,700 people, including about 2,000 recruited through the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination, held the protest, demanding revocation of the orders," a demonstrator said.

Some of the protesters filed petitions before the Jharkhand High Court challenging the government's decision.

The demonstrators had also held protests on Wednesday, with some entering the Jharkhand Secretariat premises, violating a prohibitory order.

Maintaining that they were not opposed to an investigation into alleged irregularities, the protesters objected to the cancellation of the entire examination.

They argued that action should be taken against tainted candidates and not against those selected on merit.

Chandan Kumar Sahu, who is a food safety officer with the government, said, "No complaints have so far been received about any irregularities in exams for food safety officers. But we are being thrown out. This is not justice. We will continue our protest till justice is meted out to us."

Another candidate, Anima Vibha Minz, said they cleared the examination based on merit.

The candidates said several of them had already joined government departments, including finance, home, road transport, labour, and information and public relations.

Meanwhile, the functioning of several government departments was impacted due to the demonstration.

On Wednesday, agitating students suspended their 26-day protest and gave a 2-month ultimatum to the state government to resolve issues related to the alleged exam irregularities.

Amid a 25-day students' agitation over alleged irregularities in Jharkhand recruitment exams, the JMM-led government recently cancelled and ordered probes into 45 tests conducted by the state PSC and an outsourced agency since 2014.