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‘Does JPSC conduct judicial exam too?’ Worried SC asks on CBI probe plea
The Supreme Court’s willingness to examine the plea comes amid a wider controversy over recruitment examinations in Jharkhand
The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Jharkhand government’s response on a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged irregularities in the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Preliminary Competitive Examination-2025, conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) for recruitment to 103 posts.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the state government and asked its counsel to obtain instructions and respond on the next date of hearing. Notices were also issued to the JPSC, Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC), the Centre and the CBI.
The top court’s willingness to examine the plea comes amid a wider controversy over recruitment examinations in Jharkhand where job aspirants staged a 26-day agitation over alleged irregularities in various examinations. They suspended the protest on August 19 after the Hemant Soren government cancelled 22 recruitment examinations and ordered probes into 23 others. The protesters, however, continued to demand an independent CBI probe.
Senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, appearing for petitioner Harisharan Devgan, told the bench that students had been protesting and were seeking a CBI investigation into the alleged irregularities under the supervision of a retired judge.
The Jharkhand CID is probing alleged irregularities in examinations conducted by the JPSC.
The bench, while agreeing to issue notice, also expressed concern over the functioning of the recruitment commission and asked, “Are judicial services also conducted by the same commission? We are worried about that too.”
The petition was filed against the backdrop of allegations that surfaced after the declaration of the preliminary examination results on July 2. One of the issues cited by Devgan is the circulation of a purported candidate-held carbon copy of an OMR sheet, which allegedly showed a discrepancy between the number of questions attempted by a candidate and the candidate’s qualification for the next stage. The plea has not claimed that the authenticity of the document has been conclusively established, but has sought its forensic examination.
The state CID registered a case about the alleged irregularities in JPSC examinations and asked candidates who qualified in the preliminary examination to submit their carbon copies of Paper-I and Paper-II OMR sheets. The plea says these copies can be compared with the original OMR sheets, scanned images, coding and decoding records, evaluation data and result-generation records.
Devgan has argued that the allegations warrant scrutiny of the entire examination chain -- from preparation, printing, storage and transportation of question papers to the conduct of the examination, custody and scanning of OMR sheets, evaluation and generation of the final results.
The plea also seeks preservation of original OMR sheets, candidate carbon copies, question papers, answer keys, attendance and biometric records, CCTV footage, examination-centre records, scanning and coding records, evaluation data, server logs and result-generation data.
The petitioner has contended that the investigation must establish whether any irregularity was isolated or systemic, candidate-specific or centre-specific, and whether tainted and untainted candidates can be reliably identified.
On August 20, the Jharkhand High Court stayed the government’s orders cancelling the 11th and 13th JPSC examinations and appointments made pursuant to them, while seeking the state’s response.
The petitioner has also referred to previous controversies surrounding JPSC and JSSC examinations, including allegations relating to the 2024 JSSC-CGL examination. The plea, however, makes clear that these instances have been cited only as surrounding circumstances and not as proof of wrongdoing in the present examination.
Devgan has also relied on the JPSC’s decision to postpone the Combined Civil Services Main Written Examination-2025, which was scheduled from July 25 to 27. The commission subsequently postponed the remaining examinations under its 2026 calendar until further orders.
