Chandigarh, Oct. 28 -- Eight months after the Punjab and Haryana high court quashed criminal prosecution initiated by the Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against four Haryana civil service (HCS) officers and one Haryana police service (HPS) officer regarding their appointments, a Hisar court has formally absolved these officers. An application for quashing proceedings against HCS officers Jaiveer Yadav, Ved Parkash, Inderjeet, Sanjeev Kumar, and HPS officer Ashok Kumar was filed before the trial court in Hisar on the grounds that the high court in its January 29, 2025, order had quashed the FIR along with the July 5, 2023, chargesheet submitted by the ACB against these officers. The trial court of Hisar additional sessions judge, Khatri Saurabh, on October 23 ordered that in view of the high court orders, the proceedings in the present FIR against the five accused persons stand quashed and their bail bonds and surety bonds stand discharged. The high court, while quashing criminal prosecution against these officers, held that once the government decided to appoint them after declaring them untainted, and the decision was accepted by the high court, treating them as tainted candidates is bad in the eyes of law. These individuals were recommended for appointment by the Haryana Public Service Commission in 2004 during the INLD rule. However, they were not issued appointment letters by the successive Congress government, as a cloud was cast over their selections and the matter was investigated by the state vigilance bureau. Following two separate vigilance investigations that segregated untainted candidates, 38 HCS and allied services officers were offered appointments by the state government in 2016. However, show cause notices were served to these officers in November 2021 to dispense with their services in the wake of petitions filed by candidates who were not given appointments. The notices were issued on the grounds that the entire process of selecting them in 2004 was vitiated. In July 2023, the vigilance bureau initiated criminal prosecution against these officials by arranging them as accused in a Hisar court. In August 2023, the HC set aside the November 2021 show cause notices served by the state government conveying its decision to dispense with the services of these officers. In his January 29, 2025, judgment, justice NS Shekhawat of the high court held that when reports of an independent committee of the state vigilance bureau have been accepted by the high court and appointments have already been offered to untainted candidates, any prosecution based on the report of a DSP-level officer cannot continue and is a gross misuse of the process of law....