Jharkhand High Court stalled the appointment of 147 state government officials selected by Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) on the basis of the second civil services examinations of 2007.
A division bench of Justices R K Merathia and D N Upadhaya directed all the 147 officials in the rank of deputy collector, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) joined the posts will not be allowed to draw their salaries until the CBI completed its probe.
The court also ordered the state vigilance bureau to hand over the relevant files to CBI to conduct probe of the 2007 examinations and allowing Ranju Kumari to work till further orders.
As many as 46,700 candidates had appeared in the preliminary examinations of which 12,300 were selected for written examinations.
Finally, 172 candidates were declared successful, Of them, five chose not to appear, while another 19 were terminated using unfair means to pass the examinations. JPSC secretary in a letter dated November 30, 2009, had informed the JSPC chairman that documents and papers related to the examinations were not sealed inside the strong room but lay scattered in cartoons. Then Governor Syed Sibtey Razi ordered a vigilance probe in which it was found 37 candidates had adopted unfair means in writing the answer papers. The high court’s order came on the basis of a PIL filed by one Budh Deo Oraon urging the court that the 2007 JSPSC selection process be scrapped as several candidates were favoured by virtue of their relationship with politicians and other VIPs.
On the basis of the vigilance probe, the selection of the candidates had been terminated. But the candidates moved the high court before a single judge bench which ordered their reinstatement on grounds of violation of natural justice.
However, the order of reinstatement was challenged by the state government on various appeals which were disposed of recently.
