You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Additional Subscription Benefits

Need help with your subscription?

The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.

First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.

Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.

Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!

Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers

THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers

Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there

Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary.

On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.

Published - August 23, 2026 12:26 pm IST - New Delhi

Job aspirants and students during a protest against the Jharkhand government over the cancellation of the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination following an alleged paper leak, and irregularities in other competitive exams, at Albert Ekka Chowk, in Ranchi. File. | Photo Credit:

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday (August 24, 2026) a plea seeking an independent, time-bound probe by the CBI into alleged malpractices in the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Preliminary Examination.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana is likely to take up the petition filed by activist Harisharan Devgan, through advocate Satyam Singh Rajput, for hearing.

"The present writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India is being preferred in public interest seeking urgent intervention of this court in relation to serious and substantial concerns regarding the integrity, fairness, transparency and credibility of the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Preliminary Competitive Examination–2025, conducted by respondent no. 2–Jharkhand Public Service Commission pursuant to Advertisement No. 01/2026 on April 19, 2026," it said.

The plea has also sought transfer of the investigation from the State CID to the CBI to ensure an impartial probe into public officials and examination agencies.

“The petitioner submits that the controversy cannot appropriately be examined merely as a dispute concerning individual candidates or isolated instances of alleged malpractice.

"The allegations require examination of the entire examination chain, including preparation and printing of question papers, coding, storage, transportation, distribution, conduct of the examination, collection and custody of OMR sheets, scanning, coding and decoding, evaluation, storage and access to electronic examination data, generation of the result and publication thereof," it said.

It has also sought direction to immediately secure all physical and digital evidence, including original and candidate-held OMR carbon copies, CCTV footage, and server audit logs, to prevent tampering.

"The petitioner is conscious that the mere existence of allegations or public protests cannot, by itself, justify cancellation of an examination. The petitioner, therefore, does not seek cancellation merely on the basis of media reports or allegations.

"The principal relief sought is for an independent, impartial, comprehensive and time-bound investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation, so that the nature, extent, mechanism and impact of the alleged irregularities may be objectively determined," it said.

It further added that the consequential question whether the preliminary examination can safely be relied upon must thereafter be determined on the basis of objective and scientifically verifiable evidence.

The petitioner said he raises a constitutional question concerning whether a public recruitment examination conducted by a constitutional authority has retained the minimum degree of fairness, transparency, reliability and institutional integrity necessary for its result to constitute the lawful basis for public appointments.

Published - August 23, 2026 12:26 pm IST

court / Jharkhand protest

Terms & conditions  |  Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.