2013, 2014 Assam Combined Competitive Exams: Panel finds Jobs were up for sale
Justice (retired) Biplab Kumar Sharma Commission’s two reports were tabled in the Assam assembly on Monday three years after the first of them was submitted
A commission that probed the recruitment of bureaucrats and police officers in Assam through 2013 and 2014 Combined Competitive Exams (CCEs) has found jobs were “available for sale” for a few lakh to ₹50 lakh, making a mockery of the selection process.
Justice (retired) Biplab Kumar Sharma Commission’s two reports were tabled in the Assam assembly on Monday three years after the first of them was submitted. It submitted its report on the 2013 exam in April 2022 and the one on 2014 in October 2023.
The panel said the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) was reduced to a private guild and an employment agency for providing jobs “in lieu of money and other extraneous considerations”. It added the sanctity of the constitutional body was violated with impunity. “Jobs were made available for sale,” the commission’s report on the 2013 selections said.
The panel said there is reason to believe that the candidates selected on extraneous considerations were allowed to write their examinations at places other than the examination halls or were allowed duplication. It added malpractices seemingly were “quite bigger and larger than what could be unearthed”.
The report said that it was for the state government to take a call on whether all selections through CCE 2013 should be set aside and whether there should be an investigation into CCE 2014 to restore public confidence in APSC.
The report said there are doubts about other CCEs and examinations conducted during Rakesh Paul’s tenure as APSC chairman. Paul was part of the APSC from 2008 and 2016 first as a member of APSC and later chairman.
The report on the 2014 exam said that the services of some of the recruits made through the CCEs of 2013 and 2014 have been terminated but many were still in the administration occupying high and key positions. “With their illegal presence in service, not only the administration or for that matter the public will suffer, but it will carry a very wrong message towards compromising merit and performance of deserving candidates,” the report on the 2014 exam said. HT has seen copies of both reports.
The alleged cash-for-jobs scam came to light in 2016 when dozens of candidates were accused of using unfair means to clear the Assam Civil Service and Assam Police Service exams in 2013 and 2014 in cahoots with Paul.
The Assam Police arrested 60 officers from the 2013 batch and 39 were subsequently terminated from service. In April 2022, a special court in Guwahati framed charges against 67 accused, including Paul and six other APSC members, in the scam.
The state government formed the inquiry commission to investigate the 2023 and 2014 recruitments at the Gauhati high court’s directions.