Protests forced Jharkhand govt to cancel JSSC-CGL; now those who cleared it are protesting

Jharkhand Cancels JSSC-CGL; Cleared Candidates Now Protest

Indiadailyupdate.com – Protests forced Jharkhand govt to cancel the JSSC-CGL examination, and now roughly 2,000 candidates who had already cleared that very exam and assumed government posts are mounting their own agitation. The state’s sudden decision to void the entire recruitment process has left these appointees feeling their hard-won positions are being stripped away without due process, creating a second wave of unrest in a state already strained by months of student protests.

How the Cancellation Unfolded

The order emerged from a marathon cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday. The government declared the JSSC-CGL examination — a competitive test for graduate-level posts across Jharkhand’s civil services — null and void, simultaneously annulling every recruitment test conducted by the outsourced agency TSR Data Processing Pvt Ltd (TDPL) since 2014, together with all results that agency had published over more than a decade.

“The government has decided to cancel the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission-Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) exam, which was one of the major demands of the protesting students,” Soren said.

The cancellation was intended to address a core demand of aspirants who had been agitating over alleged irregularities in the selection pipeline. Yet the sweeping move spawned an entirely new front of discontent among those who had already passed the exam, completed verification, and been inducted into active government service.

Appointees Demand a Fair Investigation

The successful candidates stress that they are not obstructing any inquiry into alleged malpractice. What they seek, they argue, is a genuine opportunity to demonstrate that their appointments were secured through legitimate channels. Both camps — the original protesters and the now-aggrieved appointees — are calling for a CBI investigation into the matter, though they disagree sharply on what outcome that probe should produce.

“Tell us our crime. Don’t throw us out. We were appointed after a court order,” said Kaushal Kumar, an assistant section officer in the Jharkhand government, according to news agency PTI.

“We have come with all documents. Don’t cancel it. Probe it. Do a CBI probe or whatever investigation you deem fit, but please don’t do injustice to us,” he added.

Chanda Kumari, another appointee, raised the question of whether successful candidates were afforded adequate opportunity to present their case before the government moved to cancel the examination outright.

“Democracy means that 100 guilty may be spared, but no innocent should be punished,” she said.

“Prove It Before You Remove Me”

The candidates contend that a clear distinction must be drawn between individuals implicated in any alleged wrongdoing and those who obtained their positions through legitimate channels. Ashish Minz, appointed labour enforcement officer in Khunti via the JSSC-CGL process, told news agency ANI that he had previously served at LIC and the Food Corporation of India before assuming his current role in the state bureaucracy.

“Now, we have nowhere to go back to; we are left with nothing,” he said, adding, “Prove that I committed a wrongdoing, and only then remove me.”

Prince Priyadarshi, another recruit, noted that successful candidates had entered service on the strength of a court verdict and argued that anyone ultimately