The protests against compromised public examinations in Jharkhand, on since late July, brought the Hemant Soren government to the negotiating table almost immediately. Nearly all their demands have been met. To be sure, Jharkhand, like many other states, needs to do much more to ensure the integrity of its public examination system. In fact, governments across the country must confront the crises of education and employment that have given these tests outsize importance. But the blanket cancellation of appointments, while it helps the government under pressure to appear responsive, can also be a slippery slope. It skirts vital distinctions and short-circuits due process. It can end up doing injustice to those who competed in good faith and cleared the exam fairly. Overnight, the 2,000 individuals appointed after clearing the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission-Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination found themselves without employment.
Those who cleared the exam had already suffered from the unconscionable delays. Recruitment for JSSC-CGL posts began with a notification in 2015-16. In 2024, the Jharkhand High Court ordered that status quo be maintained amid allegations of a paper leak. In December 2025, the court lifted the stay and asked the government to appoint successful candidates. Now, those candidates are again in limbo, creating, ironically, a new group of protesters. Outside Jharkhand Mantralaya, Vikas Kumar Sharma told this newspaper, “Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that the office where we worked in the morning would have us standing outside its gates by evening … as protesters.”
Even before the protests gathered steam, the Jharkhand government had cancelled the state Public Service Commission exam, ordered a CID probe and arrested a director of TSR Data Processing Private Limited (TDPL) — all exams conducted by TDPL stand cancelled. The cancellation of exams that have undergone judicial scrutiny is arguably a blunt instrument that scores political points without addressing the deeper issues that have to do with dysfunctional systems and dwindling employment. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that those who got jobs after stringent tests, through a process that was upheld by the court, are not discriminated against. Due process and the credibility of the testing system are at stake. For the protesters, too, the current moment calls for a pause. From Jantar Mantar in Delhi to Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium in Ranchi, it has been an arduous journey, in the course of which the young and those left behind have demanded accountability and reform. They have pushed the powerful to listen. This momentum must lead to meaningful reform. It would be tragic if it is frittered away.
