Jharkhand CM welcomes HC order on recruitment exam, says conspiracy cannot suppress truth

Ranchi, Dec 4 (PTI) A day after the high court rejected a petition seeking a CBI probe into alleged question leak in the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination 2023, Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday said a conspiracy can cloud the truth for a moment, but can never erase it.

Addressing the candidates who had written the JSSC-CGL examination, Soren also said “destructive minds” wanted to push the future of thousands of youths into darkness.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Rajesh Shankar on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by one Prakash Kumar seeking a CBI probe into the alleged question leak in the JSSC-CGL examination conducted by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) last year.

The court also directed the JSSC to declare results and initiate the recruitment process.

"The joy on your face bears witness to your struggles, your dedication. A conspiracy can indeed blur the truth for a short while, but it can never erase it," the CM said, sharing on X photos of the candidates celebrating the court order.

Soren said that any obstacle can be overcome with good intentions.

Declaring that he is with millions of young people, he said, “We must work together to take Jharkhand forward.” In an apparent attack on the opposition BJP, the CM said some “destructive minds” wanted to push the future of thousands of youths into darkness.

“Only four JPSC (Jharkhand Public Service Commission) examinations were conducted in 18 years. Our government successfully conducted four JPSC examinations in five years,” he added.

The high court did not find merit in the petition praying for a CBI investigation and was convinced by the CID probe into the matter.

The state government, in an affidavit, had mentioned that the CID conducted a detailed investigation and found no instance of question paper leak in the JSSC-CGL exams of 2023.

The high court in December last year ordered the authorities not to publish the final result of the 2023 JSSC-CGL examination.

The court also directed the government to ensure that the police register an FIR on the candidates’ complaint regarding the question paper leak and conduct a thorough investigation.

The JSSC-CGL exams were conducted on January 28, 2024. However, it was subsequently known that the question papers of the exams were allegedly leaked.

Those exams were cancelled and the JSSC conducted the tests afresh on September 21 and 22, during which allegations of question paper leak were raised again. Over six lakh candidates appeared for the examination to fill up 2,025 posts in various departments of the government. PTI SAN COR SAN NN