Rajasthan HC cancels 2021 SI recruitment exam over paper leak allegations — ‘Fraud vitiates everything’

A single-judge bench of Justice Sameer Jain that delivered the ruling said that then members of the RPSC – including Babulal Katara and Ramu Ram Raika — were “directly involved” in leaking papers and answer keys before the exams. Both Katara and Raika are arrested – the former in 2023 and the latter in September 2024.

According to the court, the scam was not confined to the written test and that “even the interview stage was manipulated”. “Apart from this, external gangs such as the Bishnoi and Kaler gangs were engaged in distributing leaked papers,” the court said.

Investigation, the court said, had also found malpractices such as dummy candidates, Bluetooth-enabled cheating, and copying inside exam halls.

“Security measures such as biometric verification, CCTV surveillance and internet shutdowns were either poorly implemented or ignored, making it easier for cheating to spread widely,” he said. “Committees formed by the government and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) confirmed that the fraud was systemic and that it was practically impossible to separate genuine candidates from those who benefited from corruption.”

Sub-Inspector recruitment “is a highly-sensitive matter linked with law and order, and allowing such tainted recruitment to stand would destroy public trust in the police force”. “Fraud vitiates everything. Even if some honest candidates suffer, retaining the recruitment would mean legitimising large-scale corruption. In the Court’s view, the process was so tainted from within that no fair segregation of candidates was possible,” the Bench said, adding that the only “just and fair solution was to scrap the entire SI Recruitment Examination, 2021”.

A major flashpoint between the BJP and the Congress in Rajasthan, the allegations pertain to the RPSC’s 2021 recruitment exam for 859 sub-inspector and platoon commander posts.

This is the first time that an exam has been cancelled following paper leak allegations since the current Bhajan Lal Sharna government came to power in December 2023.

After the allegations surfaced in 2021, the then Congress government handed over the investigation to Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police. Over 50 trainee sub-inspectors, among others, have been arrested so far.

In 2024, the Rajasthan government formed a Cabinet sub-committee to decide whether to cancel the exam. In its report submitted to the high court in July, the sub-committee led by Rajasthan’s Law Minister Jogaram Patel had recommended that the exams should not be cancelled.

“The SIT is doing a detailed investigation and making arrests. It is possible to segregate tainted and untainted candidates,” Additional Advocate General Vigyan Shah told reporters outside the court.

After the ruling, Rajasthan BJP president Madan Rathore refused to comment, saying it was “too soon to say anything”. “The party will consult legal experts before making any decisions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Kirodi Lal Meena claimed he had been “fighting against the paper leak mafia since the beginning”.

“I’ve sent a letter to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma to cancel the exam. The paper leak mafia has destroyed many innocent lives in our state. We are with students and their interests,” Meena told The Indian Express.