Signing you in

Justice G Satapathy observed that it was indisputable that the cancellation of the examination had caused hardship to thousands of candidates. The bench added that it cannot be forgotten that competitive and public recruitment exams demand the highest standards of integrity and transparency.

“Sabotaging the exam in this way by leaking the question papers and supplying the model answer sheets to the aspiring candidates definitely corrodes the morale of meritorious candidates and the allegation against the petitioner definitely reveals a crime against society,” the July 17 order said.

The order added that “The leakage of public recruitment exam papers is not merely a common criminal offence; it is a direct assault on the socio-economic fabric of the society and shatters the public trust in meritocracy. The offence deprives lakhs of honest, hardworking candidates of their livelihood, causing deep institutional damage and public anger.”

Following the preliminary exam, 7,113 candidates were shortlisted for the main exam. However, during the scrutiny of the examination material, large-scale illegalities were found to have been committed, compromising the fairness of the examination.

Due to the allegations, the main examination was cancelled, and the accused persons were arrested. They approached the Orissa High Court seeking bail.

The Director of Panchsoft Technologies contended that his role was only for supply of manpower to the agency and there was no specific allegation against him in the FIR and no offence was made out against him.

P S Nayak, advocate for the state, opposing the bail, argued that the accused were involved in a criminal conspiracy for leaking question papers and providing model answers to the candidates in exchange for money. He added that they facilitated access to leaked papers and compromised the fairness of the recruitment process. He also contended that the accused were involved in a similar paper-leaking conspiracy and their release would affect the trial.

The court observed that in the course of investigation, the investigating agency had seized question papers, model answer sheets as well as mobile phones, hard disks and other electronic devices together with financial transaction records and candidates’ data.

The court said that the offence deprives lakhs of honest, hardworking candidates of their livelihood, causing serious institutional damage and public anger.

The court noted that the director of the agency, who was entrusted to conduct the main examination, was among the accused persons in leaking the question papers and supplying the model answers to the candidates in exchange for money.

The court rejected the 14 bail applications, observing that the act of leaking question papers through corrupt practices forced the high court to cancel the ASO main examination, affecting meritorious candidates.