Years of delayed exams, bribery allegations provoke Jharkhand protests

The students occupying the Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium say a government job is often the only realistic path to economic mobility in Jharkhand. They are demanding a complete overhaul of the State Public Service Commission and Staff Selection Commission. | Photo by Yousuf Sarfaraz

When the results of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission’s (JPSC) 14th Civil Services Preliminary Examination were declared this July, thousands of aspirants did what they always do. They refreshed websites, checked roll numbers and calculated cut-offs. What followed, however, was not the usual post-exam debate over marks, but growing doubts about whether the results themselves could be trusted..

Within days, an Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheet allegedly belonging to a successful candidate began circulating across WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels used by aspirants. Students claimed the sheet showed that only a fraction of the questions had been answered correctly, yet the candidate had qualified. Soon, allegations of large-scale manipulation snowballed. The State government ordered a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe, several arrests followed, the JPSC headquarters was searched, and the commission’s chairman resigned amid mounting scrutiny.