The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday maintained its stay on the state government’s order cancelling the JPSC 11-13 civil service and JSSC-CGL recruitment examinations, affecting the regular jobs of over 2,000 state government employees working across the state.
JPSC 11–13 refers to the 11th, 12th, and 13th Combined Civil Services Examination conducted simultaneously by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) to fill accumulated state-level administrative and executive vacancies across those three batch years.
People aware of the development said Justice Deepak Roshan’s court slammed the state’s action as arbitrary and high-handed, while criticising the sluggish CID probe. Rejecting the government’s request for a four-week extension, the court granted only 48 hours to file a status report. The next hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Former advocate general Rajeev Ranjan, who appeared on behalf of several candidates adversely affected by the government’s order, said, “the government sought four weeks to file a reply, but the court gave the government just 48 hours, setting the next hearing for Friday. The court also termed the government’s action as ‘Tughlaki Farman’.”
“We sought four weeks, but the court directed the government to file the affidavit by Friday,” Advocate General Rohitashya Roy said without elaborating on details.
{{/usCountry}}“We sought four weeks, but the court directed the government to file the affidavit by Friday,” Advocate General Rohitashya Roy said without elaborating on details.
{{/usCountry}}AG Roy, however, informed that the CID filed its investigation status report in sealed cover before the court today (Tuesday).
The legal battle stems from the government’s August 18 late night notification to annul several competitive examinations following allegations of paper leaks and institutional irregularities involving a blacklisted third-party examination management agency.
The notification was issued a day after a discussion on the matter in the state cabinet following student protests demanding proper action regarding irregularities in the recruitment exams conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC).
While the government maintained that the cancellations were necessary to preserve the sanctity of public employment, the affected candidates approached the judiciary, claiming they were being unfairly targeted.
On August 20, the HC first stayed the operation of the cancellation order for the JPSC 11 to 13 Civil Service Examination and the Child Development Project Officer Examination. Then, on August 21 it stayed the JSSC-CGL recruitment examination because the cancellation would affect the services of over 2,000 candidates already appointed and working in different government offices. The HC had scheduled September 15 for next hearing and the state was expected to give its reply today.
On August 20 and August 21 when the HC had stayed the cancellation of recruitment examination by which candidates were already appointed for jobs, students who had demanded the cancellation pointed finger on the state government saying it did not put its argument in favour of cancellation before the court.
Taking note of that the government on Tuesday appointed Supreme Court lawyer Meenakshi Arora to argue on behalf of the state. Arora appeared online for the argument.