New Delhi: Thirty-two-year-old Priyatam Kumar Priya has been preparing to crack a civil services exam for the last eight years. He was just another aspirant, but soon things went from bad to worse. His one decision to question alleged disparities in the Bihar Public Service Commission exam has now brought him public shame and a five-year debarment.
Priya had also cleared the 70th BPSC prelims examination once. But the BPSC described Priya as “incapable” and “associated with coaching” while announcing the ban.
“I came across some disparities in the examination at my centre and managed to obtain answer sheets of some candidates who cleared the exam. There were clearly several wrong answers in them,” alleged Priya.
“On that basis, I raised my concerns. I filed an affidavit and submitted all the information to the BPSC and asked them to meet me. After that, they stopped answering my calls,” he told ThePrint.
There are multiple candidates who raised the issue of discrepancies in the question paper on social media. However, BPSC acted against only four students—Sonu Kumar, Shaheen Khatoon, Arti Kumari and Priya. While Priya is debarred for five years, all the others are debarred for three years.
A juggle between courts and preparations
Priya posted videos online, filed an affidavit, and even challenged the BPSC to hold a debate with the professors who evaluated the exam papers. According to Priya, the Commission sought proof of his allegations but did not respond after he submitted the documents.
With a five-year ban, the future of Priya, who has only two attempts left, looms in the dark.
Instead of focusing solely on preparation, he now finds himself fighting on two fronts—continuing his studies while also challenging the Commission’s action in court. He has moved the Patna High Court over the copy-checking issue and approached the Supreme Court against the debarment.
“They have called me a failure without letting me use all my attempts. I cleared Prelims in the 70th BPSC, and if I have the attempts left, it means the government has given me chances to try. So how can they call me a failure and publish all the details about me?” asks Priya.
The statement released by the BPSC in January calls Priya a “failure and associated with coaching institutes”.
“It is very clear from Priya’s digital footprint that they are associated with a coaching institute and misusing social media for popularity. He had failed in the 65th, 69th and 71st BPSC, which proves his intelligence,” reads the BPSC statement in Hindi.
After appearing for the 71st prelims, Priya said that he noticed disparities at his exam centre and later filed an affidavit detailing the concerns.
“The rule said that OMR sheets should be sealed in front of the students, but at my center the invigilator didn’t seal it in front of us, and when we asked, he fought and we had to go. The incident occurred on 15 September last year, and I filed an affidavit on 17 September,” said Priya, who later found issues in answer checking as well and posted about that on social media.
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‘It is against the rules’
The BPSC has debarred aspirants in the past, too, but they sought the relaxation from the Patna High Court. In September 2025, the Patna HC set aside the BPSC’s order debarring a candidate for three years from appearing in its examinations. The court held that the Commission’s order was “non-speaking” and lacked sufficient reasons, and observed that administrative orders affecting candidates must record clear grounds and follow principles of natural justice.
In another case, related to the BPSC Teacher Recruitment Examination 2023, the Patna High Court quashed a permanent ban imposed on a candidate accused of impersonation, directing the Commission to remove the notice after finding insufficient grounds for the punishment.
“What they did is against the rules; they can debar a student if one has been involved in cheating, fraud or tampering with the exam. What I was doing was helping the system by raising valid concerns, and in return, they shamed me publicly,” said Priya.
Along with Priy, Arti Kumari is also debarred from the exam for three years. She did not come on social media and campaign against BPSC; she gave a byte to a YouTube channel that had 16,000 views, and it reached BPSC. On that basis, the commission debarred Kumari.
“We came across the copy-checking issue on social media, and we were going to get in touch with leaders like (deputy CM of Bihar) Samrat Chaudhary to raise the matter. That is when a YouTuber came and asked about our problems; I just shared my issues. That was it,” Kumari, who is still preparing for BPSC, told ThePrint.
In the YouTube video, Kumari claimed to have contacted the BPSC to lodge a complaint regarding the results, but they were sent back and asked to prepare again.
“I attempted all the questions, I saw other copies where people didn’t even attempt all the questions and didn’t write sufficient answers, cleared the exam, and I feel the evaluation was not up to the mark,” said Kumari in the video that has 16,000.
ThePrint had sent an email to BPSC, enquiring about “specific grounds” on which Priya has been debarred for five years from appearing in the examination. The Commission is yet to answer the queries.
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A broken dream
Aspirants have claimed that the BPSC did not follow the procedure normally required before debarring a candidate.
Under the Commission’s examination rules and general principles, a candidate is usually issued a show-cause notice detailing the allegations and is allowed to respond. The matter is then examined by the Commission or a designated committee before a final order is passed. Only after this process is completed can a candidate’s eligibility be cancelled or a debarment from future examinations be imposed.
“I have received many notices, but all of them accuse one thing: that I am doing all this to gain cheap popularity. I asked them to constitute a committee and investigate, but they never did, and even the debarment letter doesn’t cite any rule,” said Priya.
The statements released by the BPSC only mentioned the social media activity of the students and accused them of spreading misinformation for popularity. However, there has been no mention of cheating, obstructing exam officials or threatening them, which would make the aspirants eligible for debarment.
Priya’s father, a farmer, said that cracking the civil services exam was an ambition of his son to change the family’s fate. But instead of the exam being the path forward, he now finds himself in a parallel battle with the very system he hoped to enter.
“There are financial challenges. Now, do I study or go to court?” Priya said.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)