HCS Recruitment Scam
HPSC has murdered the system: HC
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 12
“By throwing out an intelligent person of Haryana origin, the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) has, in fact, murdered the system.”
This stinging oral observation was made by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice K.S. Ahluwalia here today when the hearing on a petition challenging the selection made by the commission for the HCS and allied services resumed.
The observation came after the Bench read an affidavit filed by a Scheduled Caste candidate, Shalender Singh Birla, who secured 565 marks in the written examination but was given only 17 marks out of 100 in the interview by the commission.
Giving a comparison of the marks secured by him and another Scheduled Caste candidate, Ranjit Kaur, who got 90 marks in the interview despite having scored 493 marks in the written examination, Birla stated in his affidavit that he was given less marks to favour Ranjit Kaur at his cost.
The judges noticed that the candidate was so intelligent that he had qualified for admission to all six IIMs, which is a rare distinction, yet the HPSC did not consider him intelligent enough to be selected in the HCS and he was given only 17 marks in the interview as against Ranjit Kaur, who was given 90 marks in the interview.
Appearing on behalf of petitioner Karan Singh Dalal, MLA from Palwal, former Advocate-General of Haryana Mohan Jain told the Bench that the answersheets of all candidates were inspected in pursuance to the court orders.
During inspection many irregularities, manipulations and interpolations, ostensibly not without connivance with HPSC officials, were detected.
Giving instances, Jain said in the case of Kuldhir Singh, son of Sher Singh Badsami, political adviser to then Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, it was noticed that his marks in the answersheets were increased by way of cutting and overwriting without attestation.
In the history paper, although he attempted four questions, he was given awards for five questions. In the Hindi paper, though Kuldhir spelt the word “Hindi” as “Hindhi”, yet marks were increased.
Similarly, in the English paper, questions were found re-attempted at page Nos. 20 and 21 of the answersheet, though all pages from No. 18 to No. 21 were crossed, being blank.
Jain said in the case of Jagdeep, a close relative of then chairman of the commission K.C. Bangar, awards were given for five questions, though he had attempted only four questions in the geography paper and some of the answers were written afterwards, may be outside the examination hall.
He said in the case of Surender Kumar, a close relative of Chautala, marks were increased and tampered with without attestation.
The discrepancies were observed in the geography, criminal law and Hindi papers, where the difference in handwriting and tampering with marks was clear.
He claimed that Sarita Malik, daughter of then director-general of police M.S. Malik, was also favoured in the Hindi paper where the marks stood increased.
Also in the sociology paper, the awards on the opening sheet were in ink different than that used for evaluation inside the answersheet. In the general knowledge paper, full marks were given in spite of mistakes.
Certain discrepancies were also found in the answersheets of Veena Hooda, Kamlesh Kumar and Manish Nagpal.
The Bench directed that any respondent who was aggrieved by the allegations against him in the inspection report could file a counter-affidavit within seven days and the case was adjourned to February 20 for further hearing.
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