Punjab & Haryana High Court: In the matter where 2 candidates who had topped the Haryana Civil Services (Judicial) examination in General & reserved category, were alleged to have leaked the paper for money, the 3-judge bench of Rajesh Bindal, Tajan Gupta and GS Sandhawalia, JJ had asked the Recruitment/Promotion/ Court Creation Committee (Subordinate Judicial Services) of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to submit a report on the matter.
As per the prima facie finding of the Committee, some of the candidates had access to the question paper and hence, it recommended scrapping of Haryana Judicial Services preliminary examination held on 16.7.2017. It was said that since atleast two candidates namely Sunita and Sushila had the question papers, the possibility that other candidates may have also had access to the question paper cannot be ruled out.
According to the finding of the Committee, there were total 760 calls and SMSs exchanged between Dr. Balwinder Sharma, Registrar (Recruitment) and Sunita, one of the canditates who has allegedly leaked the paper, during last one year. It was hence, recommended that disciplinary action against Dr. Balwinder Sharma, be taken and he should be transferred forthwith from the post pending further action. It was further recommended that FIR be registered for further probe regarding leakage of question paper.
The Court, hence, asked the Registrar (Vigilance) of the High Court to direct the service providers of the mobile connections of all the persons involved at this stage to preserve the call details, messages exchanged and any further data available with them with reference to those telephones for a period of one year.
On 12.09.2017, the Supreme Court had refused to transfer the matter to Delhi High Court.
The Court will now hear the matter on 15.09.2017. [Suman v. State of Haryana, 2017 SCC OnLine P&H 2313, order dated 13.09.2017]
