Rajasthan govt argues 'wrongdoing by a few' shouldn't scuttle SI recruitment; HC issues notices

Jaipur, Nov 24 The Rajasthan High Court's division bench on Monday issued notices on the state government’s appeal challenging the single bench’s decision to cancel the Sub-Inspector (SI) Recruitment Examination 2021.

The bench, headed by Acting Chief Justice S.P. Sharma, issued notices to petitioner Kailash Chandra Sharma and others, and scheduled the next hearing for January 5.

In its appeal, the state government argued that the entire recruitment process cannot be quashed on account of wrongdoing by a few individuals.

It contended that the question paper leaked from one exam centre reached only a limited number of candidates, while another paper, allegedly leaked at the RPSC level, was circulated only among the children of certain members and associated brokers.

The government emphasised that the leaked papers "were not distributed across Rajasthan", and therefore the entire recruitment should not be invalidated.

The state further argued that scrapping the recruitment has severely impacted thousands of genuine and meritorious candidates who had no involvement in the irregularities.

It submitted that if investigating agencies are capable of identifying tainted candidates, the court should refrain from cancelling the entire examination. The single bench had cancelled the SI recruitment on August 28.

The state government had a 60-day window to file an appeal before the division bench; however, it approached the court after the deadline had lapsed and therefore sought condonation of delay.

The division bench accepted the request for condonation of delay and issued notices accordingly.

Advocate Harendra Neel informed the court that, apart from the government, former RPSC Chairman Sanjay Shrotriya, former RPSC member Manju Sharma, and several selected candidates have also filed appeals.

Notices have been served in some of these cases, while in others the court has directed that notices be issued.

The matter will now be taken up for a detailed hearing on January 5.

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