‘Dropping Manipur exam centres’: SSC informs Delhi High Court that TCS associates were trapped for 8 days in May 2023
SSC issued a notice on its website on September 4 stating that the Combined Graduate Level Examination (Tier-1), 2024, will not be conducted in Churachandpur and Ukhrul “due to the prevailing law and order situation in Manipur.”
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The Court is due to take up the matter next on January 15. (File)Giving reasons for the cancellation of Churachandpur and Ukhrul in Manipur as examination centres for government recruitment exams, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) recently informed the Delhi High Court that the last exam conducted in Ukhrul saw “TCS associates trapped in their hotel for eight days under extremely difficult circumstances.”
The submission came in a petition by Kuki Students’ Organisation, a registered student organisation under the Societies Registration Act, registered at Churachandpur and with chapters in Delhi and the National Capital Region, seeking that Churachandpur and Ukhrul be reinstated as a venue for government recruitment examinations for the remaining academic year.
SSC issued a notice on its website on September 4 stating that the Combined Graduate Level Examination (Tier-1), 2024, will not be conducted in Churachandpur and Ukhrul “due to the prevailing law and order situation in Manipur.”
In an affidavit filed through undersecretary Ashesh Chaudhary on October 23, SSC submitted that before assigning Ukhrul as an examination centre, an audit of the exam centre is required to be undertaken which could not be done as initially “the network auditor could not reach… Ukhrul” and subsequently, “due to the current developments in Manipur state and the situation with local dynamics; the team members from outside Manipur state have also shown reservation to travel to both Churachandpur and Ukhrul in Manipur.”
The affidavit mentions that TCS, in an email on July 31, had informed SSC “that the TCS team in Imphal is of Meitei community and they cannot travel to Churachandpur and Ukhrul as there were serious security concerns/threat to life due to disturbances in the state of Manipur.”
It was also pointed out that when the last exam was conducted in Ukhrul on May 3, 2023, severe violence erupted on the day, leaving TCS associates trapped in their hotel for eight days under extremely difficult circumstances, and since then no exam has been conducted at the venue.
After “TCS expressed their inability to conduct examinations at these two centres in Manipur” owing to the “ongoing violence and agitation”, the SSC issued a notification on September 4 removing the two as exam centres.
SSC has now submitted that while the security situation in Manipur is “both sensitive and fluid”, it is “keen to hold exams at Churachandpur and Ukhrul”.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela on Thursday while taking SSC’s assurance on record, directed the Commission to carry out an updated assessment and file a fresh status report in this regard by January 8. The Court is due to take up the matter next on January 15.
Manipur has witnessed sporadic incidents of violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities since May last year.
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