The Rajasthan High Court, in its landmark judgement—which adjudicated in favour of the cancellation of the SI Recruitment Exam 2021—has appreciated the ruling BJP for promising in its manifesto to curb paper leaks and make recruitment exams untainted, State Finance Commission member Arun Chaturvedi said.
Chaturvedi, an ex-minister and a former BJP state president, issued a statement late Thursday evening to assert that the court hailed as “undeterred, resilient, thorough, and painstaking the work of the SoG and SIT of the Rajasthan police in investigating the paper leaks in the SI recruitment 2021 and some other key recruitment exams”.
Quoting a para from Friday’s judgement, Chaturvedi said, “This Court also acknowledges and appreciates the promise made by the current ruling political party in the state, as contained in its manifesto released prior to the 2023 state elections. The party had pledged to make every endeavour to curb the paper leaks and ensure that all recruitments are untainted. The corresponding investigation, aligned with the said promise in the manifesto, has enabled the widespread corrupt practices to be exposed in the public eye.”
In the same paragraph of the judgment, the court also acknowledged the laudable performance of the probing-investigating agencies. ” ….. this court acknowledges the undeterred, resilient, thorough and painstaking investigation undertaken by the SoG and SIT as reflected in the report dated 13.8.2024 and the charge sheets filed.”
”This investigation has lent significant support in unearthing the nefarious racket of paper leakage gangs and their collusive partnership with internal members of the RPSC, aimed at vitiating a fair and transparent recruitment process, hereby rendering it a systematically flawed endeavor, such as the present one.”
Contrary to this, Chaturvedi said that despite repeated and persistent demands by the aspirants of the SI recruitment exam 2021, the then Congress-led government did not take any action in this matter between 2021 and 2023. The then-opposition BJP had raised the issue and demanded a high-level inquiry in the state assembly; however, this did not break the inertia.
”It should be noted that the PSO of the then Chief Minister has also been arrested for procuring leaked paper,” the BJP recalled.
“This court has also observed that the level and the manner in which the involvement of (people of) RPSC has come to the fore (in leaks) suggested that some people who held the high positions in the then Congress government too had some involvement,” Chaturvedi said, adding, “Observations made by the court in respect of the then Congress should be viewed as the court’s endorsement of accusations made by us against the then Congress government”.
The BJP leader said that “We are supposed to respect the court order; we do respect the judgment in reference. However, the party and the government will appropriately study and examine the order and then will announce their opinion.
The single bench of the High Court yesterday ruled in favour of the cancellation of the tainted Recruitment Exam 2021 that was held to recruit 859 sub-inspectors (SIs) in the Rajasthan police.
Protracted investigations and trials in the cases have resulted in arrests of more than 300 suspects, including around 50 newly recruited trainee SIs and some RPSC officials/members.
Of the selected 859 SIs, more than 50 per cent are suspected to have passed the exam by unfair means, Rajasthan Agriculture Minister Dr Kirodi Lal Meena said.