SI recruitment: Patna high court stays final results

PATNA: The Patna high court on Wednesday stayed the publication of the final results for recruitment of sub-inspectors in Bihar police after several candidates complained of massive irregularities and violation of reservation policy in the selection process.
However, Justice Shivaji Pandey allowed the Bihar Police Sub-ordinate Service Commission (BPSSC) to continue with the physical efficiency test (PET) as the written examinations had already been conducted. The court ordered the BPSSC to file a detailed counter affidavit till September 13 on the issues raised by the petitioners.

The commission had published advertisements on September 16 last year, inviting applications for recruitment of 1,717 sub-inspectors. Altogether 29,359 candidates qualified for the main examination on the basis of the preliminary test (PT) conducted in March this year. The main examinations were held at 44 centres across the state on July 22 and 10,161 candidates qualified for the PET, which is scheduled from September 15.

Advocate Chakrapani, who represented the petitioners, submitted before the court that 222 women candidates of OBC category were shown pass in the PT while more than 600 OBC women cleared the main examination. “How is it possible that more candidates passed the main examination than in the PT from that category. The same is the situation with other reservation categories,” he submitted.

“In addition, the commission neither uploaded the model answers to its website nor invited any objections. The question booklets were also taken away from the candidates after examination,” he said.

Chakrapani said the prevalent practice is to make model answers public and invite objections. “On receiving objections, an expert committee is formed to look into the complaints,” he said, adding no such step had not been taken by the commission.

“The commission’s submission was that they would have done it after the final selection process. The court, at present, has stayed the publication of final results on technical grounds and has also granted time to the commission to rectify the faults,” he said.