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The Karnataka High Court has approved a decision of the state government to cancel the recruitment of 545 police sub-inspectors and conduct fresh examinations on account of malpractices in the exams conducted in 2021. In total, 53 candidates, among others, have been arrested for alleged malpractices.
A division bench of the Karnataka High Court Friday upheld the decision of the state government while rejecting a plea for approving the selection of over 300 candidates who were not accused of cheating in the original exam.
“Having regard to the investigation report and the charge sheet filed before the criminal courts and the allegation of the head of recruitment cell being involved in the scam, in our considered view, the option exercised by the executive to cancel the examination and to order re-examination is based on a sound reasoning and to maintain purity of examination,” a bench comprising Justice P S Dinesh Kumar and Justice T G Shivashankare Gowda said.
“To ensure fair re-examination, the state government shall entrust the process of re-examination to an independent agency without charging any fresh fee to the candidates,” the division bench also ordered.
N V Chandan and over 300 other candidates who cleared the recruitment process in 2021-2022 had approached the high court over the state government’s order to conduct fresh examinations for recruitment of police sub-inspectors after the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal had upheld a challenge of the government decision for fresh exams.
Nearly 54,000 candidates had appeared for the written exam conducted on October 3, 2021, at 92 centres across Karnataka for the post of ‘Police Sub-Inspector (Civil)’. The selection process involved a physical test and a written test. A provisional selection list of 545 candidates was published on January 19, 2022.
However, complaints of malpractices in the written examination in a Kalaburagi centre disrupted the selection process as a police investigation revealed large-scale rigging of the exam and the then BJP government ordered an investigation by the CID which led to the arrest of 53 candidates and several policemen including an additional director general of police who headed the police recruitment cell when the scam occurred.
After the investigations, the BJP government decided on April 29, 2022, to conduct fresh written examinations for all the candidates who had appeared in October 2021. Candidates who were selected and not found to have cheated in the exams, however, objected to the decision and approached the courts.
The aggrieved candidates asked the courts to direct the Karnataka government “to segregate the cases of those involved in malpractices and to complete the recruitment process in respect of other candidates since out of 545 selected candidates only 53 candidates were named in the CID charge sheet.”
The state government, however, argued that segregation was not possible since malpractices had occurred in different ways including the use of sophisticated electronic devices (Bluetooth) and physical tampering of OMR answer sheets.
The high court division bench in its ruling Friday observed that segregation of candidates for selection was not possible since the purity of the examination had been marred by malpractices.
“Conveying answers to the beneficiaries through Bluetooth devices in the examination hall is impossible if the candidates or the external party did not have the access to the question paper and the ‘version’ of the question paper prior to the examination,” the HC said. “The involvement of the ADGP who is the Head of Recruitment Wing, through whom OMR answer sheets were accessed and tampered erodes public trust and confidence,” it added.
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“In view of our finding that conveying answers through Bluetooth devices would have been impossible without leakage of questions, petitioners’ prayer to complete the selection process of untainted candidates is untenable because petitioners’ results are also not free from suspicion,” the HC bench said. “We say so because questions once leaked will reach different corners of the State in no time,” the Court observed.
“In our opinion, the probability of leakage of questions is almost certain because without knowing the questions earlier, the external party could not have conveyed answers within 90 minutes, particularly when transmission was only one way,” the HC said.
“The purity in conducting the examination is a sine qua non to build a robust, efficient, and honest public service and particularly, the disciplined uniformed force like the police,” the bench ruled.
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