The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday continued its interim stay on the state government's decision to cancel appointments made through several recruitment examinations, including the JPSC 11th to 13th Combined Civil Services Examinations, CDPO, FSO and JSSC-CGL.
A bench of Justice Deepak Roshan directed the state government to clarify its stand and submit a response within 48 hours. The matter will next be heard on September 17.
During the hearing, the state government informed the court that a report on the progress of the ongoing CID investigation would be submitted in a sealed cover.
High Court advocate Kumar Harsh said that the court has directed the state government to continue the stay on all exam results based on which appointments have already been made. This means that the state government's cancellation order will not affect these appointments for now.
During the hearing, senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, representing the state government, requested four weeks' time to file a response. However, the court did not accept this request. The court remarked that this matter involves a serious issue involving the future of many people, and therefore, seeking a long time to file a response is not appropriate. The court directed the government to file a response within 48 hours and set September 17th for the next hearing. Prior to this, the government presented a sealed report related to the CID investigation to the court.
During the previous hearing in this case, the High Court had clearly directed the state government to file an affidavit by September 7th. However, the government had not filed a response as of Monday. Meanwhile, affidavits have been filed on behalf of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission through advocate Sanjay Piprawal in some cases. Senior advocate Rajiv Ranjan, advocates Shrey Mishra, Indrajit Sinha, Amritansh Vats, and other advocates presented their arguments before the court on behalf of the petitioners. Advocate General Rohitashya Rai presented the case on behalf of the state government.
The court also made an oral observation regarding the investigation into the matter. It said that it had full faith in the police, but noted that the pace of the investigation appeared to have slowed after the initial stage. The court indicated that it would continue to monitor the investigation and the facts emerging from it.
Importantly, the High Court has not yet delivered a final judgment on the petitions challenging the cancellation of the JSSC-CGL appointments. The protection granted to the selected candidates at this stage is interim in nature and does not amount to a final decision on the legality of the government’s cancellation order.