Chandigarh, Feb. 14 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has quashed a chargesheet naming eight officers of Haryana Civil Services (HCS) recruited in 2002 during Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) government led by Om Prakash Chautala. The HCS officers were challaned by the state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on June 30, 2023 in the court of Hisar sessions judge arraigning these eight HCS officers of 2002 batch as accused in a 2005 criminal case. The allegations were of irregularities and malpractices in the exam conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) for 2001 HCS and Allied Services (executive branch) examination. They are Veena Hooda, Surender Singh-1, Jagdeep Dhanda, Sarita Malik, Kamlesh Bhadoo, Kuldhir Singh, Vatsal Vashisht and Jag Niwas. A total of 29 persons including six former HPSC functionaries, four allied services officers and nine paper checkers were also arraigned in the chargesheet. At least 64 HCS officers were selected by the HPSC during the INLD government in 2002. The FIR was registered in 2005. The petitions were filed by these officers in 2025 "..it is so clear that after 18 years the names of the petitioners were incorporated in the report under Section 173 CrPC (challan) in a FIR which was not connected with the petitioners at all. They were neither named as accused in the FIR nor was any investigation conducted qua them. Therefore, this Court is satisfied that the presentation of the report under Section 173 CrPC qua the present petitioners was not in accordance with law and is illegal in nature," the bench of justice JS Puri said in its order passed on February 4 while quashing the charge-sheet presented on June 30, 2023. The court, however, granted liberty to the state to investigate the matter and if so required, to "proceed in accordance with law". The court noted that the petitioners were not named as accused, nor did the subject matter of the FIR in question pertained to the selection of the petitioners. "In fact, the FIR pertains to selection to the posts of assistant professors, which is an entirely different selection process. After 18 years i.e., in the year 2023, the police presented a report under Section 173 CrPC incorporating the names of the petitioners but without conducting any investigation qua them," the court observed. It had come to the fore during the hearing that the names of the petitioners were incorporated only on the basis of a report submitted by a law officer before a division bench hearing the writ petition pertaining to challenge to the selection. The petition in question is still pending adjudication. "The entire record of the selection of the batch of the petitioners has been with the Division Bench of this Court since the year 2007. Therefore, the respondent-State could not have investigated the aforesaid allegations, if any, pertaining to nepotism or irregularities in the selection process," the court recorded. It further said that the Supreme Court in 2011 disposed of a plea on the dispute requesting the high court to decide the matter expeditiously "without seeking the opinion of any other judicial or non-judicial functionary". It was after about 12 years of the passing of this order that without investigating the case in respect of these officers, the challan was presented against them, it added....