Supreme Court issues notice in plea seeking an independent, time-bound CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Preliminary Competitive Examination 2025.

The Supreme Court today has agreed to hear a petition filed seeking a probe into the Jharkhand Civil Services Prelims 2025. A Public Interest Litigation has been filed seeking cancellation of the exam and a fresh exam. It also seeks a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities.

A CJI Surya Kant led bench has agreed to hear the petition filed by Harisharan Devgan which also seeks preservation of OMR sheets, question papers, answer keys, attendance sheets, biometric records, CCTV footage, dispatch registers, exam-centre reports, scanning records, evaluation data & result-generation data.

Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra appeared before the bench today on behalf of Devgan.

The PIL seeks independent audits of OMR scanning, coding, evaluation and result-generation systems, and an assessment of whether “tainted” and “untainted” candidates can reliably be separated on objective, verifiable material.

The Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India has been preferred in public interest seeking, inter alia, transfer of the investigation in CID Case No. 16/2026 from the State Criminal Investigation Department to Central Bureau of Investigation and a direction to the CBI to undertake an independent, impartial, comprehensive, effective and time-bound investigation into the alleged irregularities, manipulation, malpractice and/or compromise in the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Preliminary Competitive Examination–2025 conducted by Jharkhand Public Service Commission on April 19, 2026, including the role of officials, examination-centre personnel, service providers, scanning/evaluation agencies, technical agencies and other persons connected with the conduct, custody, processing, evaluation and publication of the result.

The Petition has been filed in the backdrop of serious allegations concerning the integrity of the aforesaid Preliminary Examination, which had already acquired an institutional and investigative character, inasmuch as the State CID had registered CID Case No. 16/2026 and, in furtherance of the investigation, had called upon successful candidates to furnish their Paper-I and Paper-II OMR carbon copies. 

Devgan has sought transfer of the investigation from the State CID to the CBI not on account of any personal allegation of lack of bona fides against the investigating officers, but having regard to the nature and magnitude of the allegations, the constitutional character of the JPSC, and the fact that the investigation requires examination of the functioning of the State recruitment machinery itself, including the possible role of officials, examination centre personnel, technical agencies, scanning/evaluation agencies and other service providers connected with the examination.

In such circumstances, an investigation by an agency insulated from the State machinery connected with the subject matter of investigation is necessary to ensure institutional independence and to inspire public confidence in the outcome of the investigation, the court has been told.

It has further been argued that the subsequent cancellation of the Preliminary Examination by the State of Jharkhand does not obviate the necessity for such independent investigation. On the contrary, the cancellation makes it necessary to determine whether and to what extent the examination process was compromised, the nature and mechanism of the alleged irregularities, the persons or agencies responsible, if any, and whether any systemic deficiencies existed in the examination process, so that appropriate safeguards may be adopted before any fresh examination or recruitment process is undertaken.

The Petitioner further seeks immediate preservation and secure custody of all original physical and electronic examination records, including original OMR sheets, candidate-held carbon copies, question papers, answer keys, attendance and biometric records, CCTV footage, examination-centre records, scanning and coding records, evaluation data, server records, audit trails and result-generation data, together with maintenance of a complete, contemporaneous and auditable chain of custody.

Court has been told such preservation is of immediate importance as the electronic and digital material may be subject to limited or variable retention periods and may be altered, overwritten, deleted or otherwise compromised with the passage of time.

The candidate-held OMR carbon copies collected pursuant to the CID investigation also constitute an important independent source of material capable of being correlated with the records maintained by JPSC and its service providers.

Therefore, the petition, raises an issue which cannot be satisfactorily addressed merely by the cancellation of the examination, which is, whether the allegations concerning the integrity of a constitutional recruitment examination affecting thousands of candidates should continue to be investigated by the State agency or require investigation by an independent central agency. 

Case Title: HARISHARAN DEVGAN Vs UNION OF INDIA

Bench: CJI Kant, Justice Bagchi and Justice Mohana

Hearing Date: August 24, 2026

Tags: