Jharkhand High Court Quashes Order Cancelling JSSC CGL Appointments, Allows CID Probe to Continue

Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court has quashed the state government's decision to cancel the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) Combined Graduate Level (CGL) examination and the appointments made through the recruitment process, bringing relief to candidates who had successfully cleared the examination and joined service.

However, the court has made it clear that the investigation into alleged irregularities in the examination will continue.

Justice Deepak Roshan delivered the verdict on Friday while hearing petitions filed by successful candidates challenging the government's cancellation order.

On August 18, the state government had cancelled the CGL examination, along with certain other recruitment tests and appointments made through them. The decision was based on a CID investigation report and protests by job aspirants.

The petitioners, including candidate Akash Gaurav, argued that action should be taken against individuals found involved in wrongdoing rather than scrapping the entire recruitment process. They maintained that alleged misconduct by a few candidates could not justify cancelling the selection of all successful candidates and invalidating their appointments.

The state government, in its submission to the court, presented a sealed report and claimed that the recruitment process had been affected by large-scale irregularities and systemic failures.

During the proceedings, the High Court observed that all selected candidates could not be treated as guilty merely because allegations of malpractice had surfaced in the examination.

The court had reserved its judgment on October 8 after hearing arguments from all sides. On that day, it also extended its interim stay on the government's cancellation order, allowing the affected employees to continue in service until the final decision.

Court-Appointed Oversight of CID Investigation

Earlier, on September 18, the High Court had appointed retired judge Gautam Kumar Choudhary to monitor the investigation into the alleged examination irregularities. Retired IPS officer R.K. Mallik was designated as the nodal officer to assist in the process.

The court had also directed that candidates selected through a fair process should not face harassment in the name of the investigation.

With Friday's ruling, the cancellation of the CGL recruitment process and the appointments made through it has been set aside, while the CID investigation into the alleged irregularities will remain underway.

The detailed court order is yet to be released.

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