SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 23: In yet another embarrassment, a double bench at the Jharkhand High Court cancelled the merit list of the 6th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) Civil Services Examination which was declared on April 23, 2020 to fill up 326 posts in various departments of the state government.
Notably, after the results were published in the year 2020, the successful candidates were serving in different districts of the state and after the decision have now lost their jobs. Regarding the result of 6th JPSC, there have been allegations since the very beginning that the marks of qualifying papers were also added with the main examination in the result.
Meanwhile, students that did sit in the exams that were earlier passed but later rejected have accepted the decision of the High Court. Several students including Sunil Kumar and Anuj Kumar have stated that they have lost all hope in both JPSC and the state government. “We remember that during the time of election campaigns in 2019, Hemant Soren had promised to reject the 6th JPSC results because he himself knew the problems with it,” they said.
“However, after elections, he cheated the examinees and published the results during the first lockdown, when no one could have openly protested against this decision. Soon the selected few were sent on duty at their respective posts prior to training. They were trained after they had already worked at their posts,” Sanjeev Kumar added.
They further continued, “They knew when publishing results of both 6th and now 7th JPSC that the process that they have opted for publishing the results and selecting the candidates are against their own rules and regulations, but neither the JPSC nor the JMM-led state government bother to check themselves. It is as if they are playing with our lives and careers and making a joke of them.”
Vivek Kumar said, “The chairman of JPSC has been quoted saying that losing a few OMR sheets in an exam of this level is normal and not a big deal. It seems as if the JPSC is not worth wasting our lives and careers only to suffer because of the JPSC and the government’s mistakes. Several of us are now above the age limit; our time, energy, money was wasted over JPSC, and they could not even publish one result correctly without error while following their own regulations. How is such a mistake possible, not once, but with every JPSC exam?”
Another JPSC examinee Arvind Kumar said, “Now after this decision, and because results and marks of all students have already been published, all the government can do is either retake Prelims and begin the whole process or re-conduct the Mains. Meanwhile, the JPSC syllabus is so vast that students serious about cracking it cannot spare time for anything else. We cannot choose anything else as our careers even if we want to. Meanwhile, even working or giving tuition just to sustain ourselves while we prepare for the exams is not usually possible.”
He further continued, ‘I am thankful that my family is supportive, else waiting and preparing for the past 10 years would not have been easy. Many of our friends have now gone back to villages only to work as MNREGA workers. One such friend is an MA student, but lost all hope and left during Covid to take care of and support his family.”
Notably, the result of the 6th JPSC exam was challenged before the court on various grounds like discrepancy in the merit list, violation of reservation policy among others. The court had conducted the final hearing from February 3 to February 17, and the judgment was kept reserved.
