Blitz Bureau
THE Supreme Court has underscored the necessity of maintaining the sanctity of public recruitment examinations. It quashed an order granting bail to two persons accused of compromising with the sanctity of a public recruitment exam and called for a strict approach against those attempting to undermine their fairness.
A Bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Ahsanuddin Amanullah noted that any act compromising the integrity of such examinations weakens public faith in Government administration and must not be taken lightly.
“In India, the reality is that there are far more takers of government jobs than there are jobs available. Be that as it may, each job which has a clearly delineated entry process—with prescribed examination and/or interview process, has only to be filled in accordance thereof. Absolute scrupulousness in the process being followed instils and further rejuvenates the faith of the public in the fact that those who are truly deserving of the positions, are the ones who have deservedly been installed to such positions,” it said.
The Apex court emphasised that recruitment processes must be conducted with absolute scrupulousness to ensure that only the most deserving candidates secure positions. “Each act, such as the one allegedly committed by the respondents, represents possible chinks in the faith of the people in the public administration and the executive,” it maintained.
The ruling reinstated the trial court’s denial of bail, reinforcing the principle that the fairness of public exams is paramount and that leniency in such cases could erode public confidence in the system.
“Since surely there must have been thousands of people who appeared for the exam, and the respondent-accused persons, for their own benefit, tried to compromise the sanctity of the exam, possibly affecting so many of those who would have put in earnest effort to appear in the exam in the hopes of securing a job, we concur with the view of the Trial Court that they are not entitled to.
