New Delhi: For thousands of young people chasing a coveted government job in the state, the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission-Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) was supposed to be a test of preparation. Instead, it has became a test of trust. After multiple allegations of paper leaks, cheating and cancellations, it has become the biggest flashpoint Jharkhand has seen in a while.
After a marathon six-hour meeting with students’ delegation Sunday, the Jharkhand government had said it had agreed to most of the students’ demands, including the demand to cancel three examinations, and the possibility of an ED probe into the 14th JPSC Combined Civil Services Exam (CSE).
However, the protesters said that they would continue their agitation till the JSSC-CGL examination result was cancelled and a CBI probe ordered into the alleged irregularities in the government recruitment exams.
The JSSC-CGL exam was conducted for the posts of Assistant Section Officer, Junior Secretariat Assistant, Labour Enforcement Officer, Planning Assistant, Block Welfare Officer, Block Supply Officer, Circle Inspector-cum-Kanungo and Junior Secretariat Assistant (reserved category).
The JSSC had shortlisted 2,231 candidates for document verification out of over 3 lakh candidates, to fill 2,025 posts. The exam was conducted in September 2024 after being cancelled once due to a paper leak. The re-exam also faced widespread allegations of paper leak, cheating and other irregularities.
Protesting students have demanded a CBI probe into the exam, saying they don’t trust the CID after its probe into the JSSC exam.
“Why would we trust the CID? It often works under pressure of the state government. We’re not prejudiced against it… but the CID has itself shown that it is biased,” a core committee member of the protest, Ankit Kumar, told ThePrint.
After the meeting Sunday, Jharkhand’s Higher and Technical Education Minister Sudivya Kumar told the media that while the students had also demanded cancellation of the JSSC-CGL exam, the government lacks the authority to cancel the exam since the courts are monitoring the probe. The government offered to constitute a monitoring committee under a retired judge to monitor this probe. However, the students did not agree to this proposal.
The FIRs in the allegations pertaining to the JSSC-CGL exam were registered only after the Jharkhand High Court intervened, and the results were declared after the court gave a green signal in December 2025. The court had also refused to cancel the exam or order a CBI probe into it. An appeal against this judgment was rejected by the Supreme Court in January this year.
An SIT probe in the case is still going on, with the CID having filed two charge sheets in the case last year.
What is the exam, what were the allegations and what did the court say? ThePrint explains.
The exam
The JSSC floated an advertisement pertaining to JGGLCCE-2023 (Regular) inviting applications for posts of Assistant Section Officer, Junior Secretariat Assistant, Labour Enforcement Officer, Planning Assistant, Block Welfare Officer, Block Supply Officer, and Circle Inspector-cum-Kanungo. Approximately 6,40,000 candidates applied.
It floated another advertisement pertaining to JGGLCCE-2023 (Backlog) inviting on-line applications against the sanctioned vacancies for the post of Junior Secretariat Assistant (reserved category).
The advertisement said that only one examination would be conducted for both the advertisements. This was to be called the ‘Jharkhand General Graduate Level Combined Competitive Examination-2023 (regular & backlog)’.
Initially, the exam was scheduled for 28 January 2024 and 4 February 2024. But the exam was cancelled because of a paper leak. New dates were notified and exams were held in September 2024.
On these dates, mobile internet, mobile data and mobile wifi services of all mobile service providers were shut down in the entire state of Jharkhand.
Over a thousand petitioners, including teachers of different coaching institutes of Ranchi as well as parents, approached the Jharkhand High Court alleging widespread allegations of paper leak and cheating in the exam.
The allegations
Several candidates had reported instances of paper leak to the JSSC and the police. For instance, at Baliyapur examination centre, one Ramchandra Mandal had seen a person, possibly a candidate, who was talking to someone on his mobile phone and was noting down the answers on a piece of paper. Mandal took a picture of the paper with his mobile phone and after the exam, he found that these were the answers to the questions asked in the exam.
Similarly, a student of one ‘Exam Fighter Coaching Centre’ had informed the authorities that five students had gone to Bihar to memorise the question paper. Another student alleged that he had received two images on the Telegram app, containing some answers to questions in the test paper.
All these allegations were supported by photographs and videos, indicating that the paper was leaked much before the start of the exam, giving an unfair advantage to certain students. However, students couldn’t inform the authorities before the exam began, due to the shutdown of Internet in the entire state.
Apart from the paper leak, there were also allegations of widespread cheating in the exam, with students engaging someone else to appear in the exam on their behalf.
Students had further alleged that the leak of question papers and answers had occurred two to three days prior to the exam, in a hotel in Asansol in West Bengal, a banquet hall at Niyamatpur in West Bengal, Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Ranchi, Mandu, Delhi and even Kathmandu in Nepal. It was alleged that selected groups of candidates were prepared for the exam at these places.
‘SIT didn’t find paper leak’
During the proceedings before the Jharkhand High Court, the state government had submitted that a Special Investigation Team inquired into all allegations of paper leaks, conducting forensic inquiry of digital devices and examination of the material witness.
However, the state government told the court, no relevant material had been found till date indicating paper leaks.
The state government told the court that from the seized mobile phones of four witnesses, a total of 187 answers were found, out of which only 66 answers were found to match questions in the JSSC-CGL exam. The government told the court that in the exam, several questions were repeated from previous recruitment examinations conducted at the state and central level.
The state also told the court that it was a case of malpractice committed by some fraudsters by convincing a few candidates that they had question papers, and that the answers to the questions would be provided to them if approached. The “scammers”, the state said, had only made guesses about the questions from previous competitive exams.
As per the high court judgment, the SIT had found sufficient evidence on the arrested accused extorting money from students, claiming to provide them question papers and answers of JSSC-CGL examination. But there was no evidence of an actual paper leak in an organised manner.
Contradictory stands
The petitioners had pointed out that in May and June 2025, counter-affidavits filed by the CID showed that money changed hands after completion of the examination for pre-examination access to the question papers. However, none of the successful candidates named by the CID in its affidavit was either charge-sheeted or examined as a witness.
These counter affidavits had said that the names of 28 candidates were found in the mobile phones of the accused, and out of the 28 candidates, 10 had qualified in the exam. Some of these candidates had also given money to the accused.
They had also allegedly submitted that as per the analysis of the CDRs of these 28 candidates, locations of the mobile phones possessed by 15 candidates were Beerganj (Nepal) or Raxaul or Motihari (Bihar). The counter-affidavit said that none of the candidates were given question papers, and were instead provided questions and answers jotted down in five to six hand written sheets and they were told to memorise them.
The petitioners alleged that the composition of the SIT had been altered thrice without any justification or judicial order, and that the SIT was also changed after the CID filed its 2025 counter-affidavits making progress in the case. CID’s chargesheets filed in June and September 2025 also reinforced these findings, the petitioners said, but the state government replaced the investigating team.
However, the court felt that the CID never said that there was a paper leak; it felt there was no inconsistency between the SIT report and the counter-affidavits filed by the CID.
HC directed FIRs
The petitioners had claimed inaction by the state government on their allegations as well, saying there was a well-coordinated conspiracy involving JSSC officials, staff, certain agencies, and high-ranking government officials in facilitating question paper leaks and various unfair means of cheating.
Among other things, the petitioners had also initially sought a direction to not publish the final result of the exam and to not offer jobs on the basis of the exam until the investigation into the matter was complete.
The high court had passed an order on 17 December 2024, granting a two pronged relief— a direction to the JSSC to not declare the results until further orders, and registration of FIRs on the complaints made by the petitioners.
“When there is such a serious issue of an alleged paper leak in the examination, and there is no plausible explanation for inaction of respondents in registering an FIR and investigating it for the last three months, if results of the said examination are announced and appointments are now made by respondents it will create third party interests and serious prejudice will be caused,” the court had observed.
Post the order, FIRs were lodged in January 2025. A Special Investigation Team was also constituted months later in August 2025.
Court refused CBI probe
The petitioners had alleged that the SIT set up to look into the exam was constituted and re-constituted repeatedly at the discretion of the state without transparency or judicial sanction. They had asserted that such arbitrary restructuring of the investigative mechanism has eroded both the credibility and continuity of the investigation, defeating the very objective of impartial investigation. The petitioners had, therefore, demanded a CBI probe.
However, the court said that while the petitioners had claimed that the SIT probe had been compromised, they had not been able to substantiate the claim. It, therefore, refused to refer the matter to the CBI.
The court then ordered the JSSC to publish the final result of the exam and the state government was directed to appoint the successful candidates to their respective posts. The SIT was directed to complete the investigation in the case within six months of the judgment.
It also said that of the 28 candidates who were allegedly taken to Nepal for learning the questions/answers by rote, 10 were called for document verification. The result of these 10 candidates, it said, will be kept in abeyance till the investigation of SIT is complete and their selection will be subject to the final outcome of the investigation.
The court also asserted that if in the probe, more successful candidates are found involved in malpractice, the state will take action against them.
All appointments subject to probe
The Jharkhand High Court’s 3 December order was challenged in the Supreme Court. However, the court rejected the petitions on 5 January.
Dismissing the petitions, the apex court had clarified that all appointment letters issued so far and that are still to be issued will be subject to the final outcome of all criminal prosecution.
“The state government will take appropriate steps to mention the same in the appointment letters,” the order passed by Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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