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Ranchi. The case of alleged irregularities in the Civil Services Preliminary Examination-2025 of Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) has now reached the Supreme Court. The apex court will hear on Monday, August 24, the public interest litigation (PIL) filed over allegations of irregularities in the examination. In the petition, there has been a demand to cancel the examination and conduct the preliminary examination afresh.

Social activist Harishran Devgan has filed this petition through advocate Satyam Singh Rajput. It demands an independent, impartial and timely investigation into the alleged irregularities in the process and evaluation of the 14th JPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination held on April 19, 2026.

Carbon copy of OMR went viral, questions raised on evaluation-
According to the petition, the controversy escalated after the results of the preliminary examination were declared on July 2. Questions were raised over the evaluation of the exam after a carbon copy of a successful candidate's OMR answer sheet went viral.

The petitioner claims that a candidate was declared successful despite answering only 48 questions out of 100 in the first paper. After these allegations, protests took place at many places including Ranchi.

Demand for investigation committee headed by retired judge-
In the petition, a demand has been made to constitute an independent investigation committee under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court judge from outside Jharkhand or a retired Chief Justice/Judge of the High Court.

It has been suggested to include experts from forensic science, IT, examination security, OMR evaluation, cyber security and public administration in the committee. Also, a demand has been made to conduct an independent audit of the entire process of OMR scanning, coding, evaluation and result preparation.

Demand to keep records to examination safe-
The petition has sought instructions to JPSC, government officials and agencies to the examination process, contractors, service providers and examination centers to keep all physical and electronic records safe.

These include original OMR sheets, carbon copies, question papers, answer keys, attendance sheets, biometric records, CCTV footage, scanning records, evaluation data and documents to preparation of results.

Demand to conduct new examination under court supervision-
The petitioner has urged the Supreme Court to order a fresh preliminary examination with security measures. Meanwhile, Jharkhand High Court has also intervened in the controversy to JPSC examinations.

On August 20, the High Court stayed the state government's order to cancel the appointments of government employees appointed through class 11th to 13th JPSC examinations. Earlier on August 18, the Jharkhand government had issued a notification canceling 22 recruitment examinations, including class 11th to 13th JPSC examinations, amid the long-running protests.

Now all eyes are on the hearing to be held in the Supreme Court on August 24 regarding JPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination-2025.