New Delhi: Pushpendra Mishra spends 10 hours of his day in a library, preparing for the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission Examination on 23 June. It’s a race against time but he is still not entirely convinced if it will actually take place. After all, it was originally scheduled for 28 April.
Students preparing for Union and state civil services examinations have to grapple with all kinds of unknowns. One is chronic postponement. Exams in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Kerala have been impacted this year. And an exam to recruit district education officers in Bihar, originally scheduled to be conducted in 2011, will be held this year. A JPSC exam was held in 2020—delayed by 15 years. Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand have failed to conduct the PSC exam efficiently and on time for long. From the government failing to provide the vacancy list and examination calendar, to state commissions frequently introducing errors in question papers and paper leaks, these examinations that provide a chance for upward social mobility to lakhs of Indian youth are often also a cause of their pain and testing their patience.
State public service commissions screen candidates for the country’s premium jobs—SDMs, DSPs, Sub Registrar Transport, Basic Education Officer, District Audit Officer, etc.
“Many times, exams land up in court because of some errors in the question papers. Sometimes the exam gets canceled, or delayed. It is the worst nightmare of the aspirants like me, who prepare for one exam for years and then end up in court for years,” said Mishra.
For Mishra, these exams are the only way to bring his family out of poverty. The loan that his father took for him sits heavy on his mind.
“I have attempted for UPSC twice and cleared the preliminary exam once, I appeared for the UP PSC in February but the exam got canceled due to a paper leak,” said Mishra, who is from Bihar and preparing in Delhi.
The delay and dip in standards of examinations that decide a state bureaucracy’s steel frame has also found the attention of the politicians. Last year, Congress leader Sachin Pilot called for Rajasthan Public Service Commission’s restructuring due to its corrupt practices. “An RPSC member has been arrested in a paper leak case for the first time in history. It needs a complete overhaul,” said Pilot.
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The court cases
Priya Bisht came to Delhi in 2017 to prepare for the UPSC exam. After struggling for five years, she moved her focus to state civil services some time in 2022. This is the usual route lakhs of candidates take in India after having failed at clearing the most coveted government exam. But Bisht had to wait there as well. The 2021 Uttarakhand PSC exam was cancelled and matter landed before the court. The notification for the next exam cam out only this year.
“I wanted to apply for it (Uttarakhand PSC) in 2022 but there was no exam due to the court case. I had to wait. Finally, this year they have released the date and I will be attempting it. I hope this one completes its cycle on time,” said the 29-year-old Bisht, who has given four attempts at UPSC.
On many occasions, aspirants turn to courts for relief and in some cases, the relief is instant. But most often, it takes years.
In 2023, 60 students from Madhya Pradesh went to the MP High Court, alleging that at least five questions, which they attempted correctly, were marked wrong in the MPPSC exam. Because of these errors, they could not qualify, falling short by two to four marks. The high court directed the state services exam body to allow all 60 to write the Mains paper.
But that’s not the case every time. In Uttarakhand, a court case has delayed the Provisional Civil Services exam 2021 by three years. The exam will take place this year. The petitioner pointed out that commission allegedly overlooked the interest of disabled aspirants by surrendering six seats. The court stayed the recruitment process to address and review the legality of the reservation policy, particularly focusing on the inclusion and representation of persons with disabilities.
The preliminary exam was held in 2021 while the Mains were held in 2023. And the interviews are still going on.
Meanwhile, aspirants in Madhya Pradesh turned to different occupations waiting for the results. Students are selling fruits and samosa, waiting for fresh notification.
Paper leaks
In March 2024, when Pankaj Yadav, 28 went to write the Jharkhand PSC exam in Jamtara, he saw a group of candidates taking the exam, outside the designated room. When he protested, he was thrown out of the centre.
“The situation is very bad and nobody is doing anything,” said Yadav who lives in Hazaribagh.
Students blame the principal and teacher of the centres who were involved in this paper leak.
Jharkhand appears to be one of the worst. The state conducted the PSC exam this year as per the schedule. But prior to this, the test was held three years ago in 2021. The exam has been marred by several controversies, including paper leaks, cut-offs, merit irregularities, etc. The candidates demanded transparency in the selection process, asking JPSC to disclose the cut-off marks for various categories, including General, OBC, SC, and ST.
“The State Public Service Commission is not doing its job seriously. There are cases like this in many states and the government should do something about it. Selling the seats and leaking the question paper like this puts our future in the dark,” Yadav said.
Jharkhand also holds the disgrace of declaring results of the 2006 JPSC Deputy Collector exam 15 years after it was first conducted. The test was held on 23 April 2006, and around 8,000 students appeared for it. But due to the mismatch between the chronology of the questions and the answer keys, students moved the court. Meanwhile, the governor asked the vigilance department to investigate the irregularities. Based on the probe report, the exam was cancelled on 12 June 2013. But the paper couldn’t be held before 3 January 2020.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar’s public service commissions are better placed when it comes to conducting exams regularly and not messing up the calendar. But that hasn’t always been the case.
“It wasn’t a long time ago when Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were also in those states that struggled with the regularities but in the last six to seven years it improved a lot,” said 30-year-old Murli Pathak, who lives in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar and has given two attempts of UP PSC and one of the BPSC.
Generally, the State PSC exams are influenced by the government of the day. A continuity in the governance ensures the regularity in the exams too, said Rahul Yadav, who teaches at one of the coaching institutes in Delhi NCR.
“Case in point is BPSC, which has been conducting the exam regularly and transparently as the government is in continuity since several years.”
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Where commissions fall short
Former officials of the state public service commissions blame both government and bureaucracy for delays and irregularities.
“There are about four problems with the state public commissions. First, there is no a calendar provided by the government on time with the number of vacancies. Advertisements of the exams should be clear. There should be no litigation. And the paper setting is one of the most important things,” told ThePrint Shiv Rathore, former member of Rajasthan Public Service Commission.
Tamil Nadu is also one of the states where aspirants struggle with the state public service commission delays and irregularities.
“With respect to TNPSC, there is concern regarding a lack of fixed examination schedules, similar to that of the UPSC. Also, it lacks professionalism and standards in the framing of questions,” said O.P. Siddharth, who runs a coaching institute in Chennai’s Anna Nagar.
Consistency vis a vis the exam pattern also ails TNPSC. This leaves aspirants perennially confused. Delay in notification often takes a toll on those who lose faith in the integrity and professionalism of the commission itself. This has forced them to switch to other exams such as SSC, RRB and UPSC exams.
“The translation of questions from English to Tamil or Tamil to English does not match and is misleading. It shows that it (the commission) did not employ the right person for the right job. Prolonged time taken for results makes the aspirants lose faith in the integrity and professionalism of TNPSC itself,” he added.
Earlier this year, the UP government cancelled the preliminary exam held by the UPPSC.
Mishra had gone to Varanasi to write the exam. But there was the news of paper leak followed by student protests.
“We had to wait for three hours in a remote mustard farm as there were no arrangements at the centres and it was far from the residential localities. The government should be careful about choosing the centres. There are not enough security arrangements. This is one of the reasons why incidents like paper leaks happen,” said Mishra.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)