Jharkhand High Court stays government order cancelling JPSC, JSSC exams

The High Court has stayed the Jharkhand government’s order cancelling the JPSC, JSSC exams on Thursday (August 20). The court issued notice to the state government to file its response within 15 days.

The development comes days after the state government’s decision to cancel the JSSC-CGL examination and recruitment tests conducted by TSR Data Processing Pvt Ltd (TDPL) since 2014, following weeks of protests by job aspirants. The move came after allegations of irregularities in recruitment examinations.

Student leader Devendra Mahto and protesters Umme Habiba and Rahul Kranti were among those involved in the agitation. Mahto ended his 16-day hunger strike at Sadar Hospital in Ranchi on August 17, with ministers present.

The government said the hunger strike and agitation had formally ended, but reports differed on whether the wider protest had actually been withdrawn. The protesters’ demand for a CBI inquiry into alleged examination irregularities remained unresolved.

The state government had instead ordered a CID investigation and continued raids linked to the case. It also formed an exam reforms committee headed by senior IAS officer Amitabh Kaushal.

However, candidates who cleared JSSC-CGL and secured government jobs opposed the cancellation, saying around 2,000 people could lose their employment altogether.

Earlier in the day, around 2,700 candidates, who recently secured government jobs through recruitment tests in Jharkhand, held a protest, 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.

(With agency inputs)