In a major setback for hundreds of job aspirants seeking the cancellation of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exams, the Patna High Court ruled on Friday that there was "no definitive evidence of malpractice" in the tests conducted in December of the previous year.
The ruling came after a division bench, led by Acting Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar, dismissed multiple petitions challenging the Combined Competitive Exams (CCE) (Preliminary) held on December 13, 2024, at over 900 centres across the state.
The bench, which also included Justice Partha Sarathy, emphasised the importance of conducting the upcoming mains examination in a manner that would be peaceful, fair, and transparent.
They advised the BPSC to ensure that the examination process for the next phase was executed with full integrity.
The controversy surrounding the CCE prelims stemmed from a protest led by hundreds of candidates assigned to the Bapu Pariksha Parisar in Patna.
These candidates accused the authorities of a question paper leak, leading them to initially boycott the examination. However, after weeks of delay, the administration decided to redistribute the candidates across multiple centres in the city, with the tests taking place later.
This decision to relocate the candidates was met with widespread discontent from other examinees, who voiced concerns that it undermined the fairness of the process.
Many claimed that the candidates relocated to other centres were being given an unfair advantage, while allegations of irregularities surfaced at more than 100 examination centres.
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In response to this, the protesting candidates staged an indefinite sit-in, demanding a re-examination of the entire process.
The protests received support from prominent political figures, including Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and other members of the INDIA alliance.
Their backing lent significant political weight to the movement, further intensifying public attention on the issue. Additionally, Prashant Kishor, the founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, expressed his solidarity with the protesters, offering legal assistance and vowing to take action.
Kishor even embarked on a "fast unto death" to press for the re-examination, but he called it off after two weeks on the advice of medical professionals monitoring his health.
Despite the political and public outcry, the Patna High Court’s decision has effectively put an end to the calls for a cancellation of the exams, directing the BPSC to move forward with the process while ensuring fairness and transparency in future examinations.
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