Jaipur, Aug. 29 -- Rajasthan high court, on Thursday, cancelled the sub-inspector recruitment examination 2021, which was notified to hire 859 people in the vacant posts, over massive paper leak allegations across the state prompting the Special Operation Group (SOG) to arrest at least 122 people since March 2024, officials aware of the matter said. A single bench of the high court (Jaipur Bench) presided over by justice Sameer Jain, passed the order on Thursday saying, "To uphold the Rajasthan Police's motto of 'Trust in the Public and Fear in the Criminals,' cancelling the 2021 SubInspector recruitment examination is imperative. This is necessitated by the fact that the tainted examination, plagued by malpractices yet to be fully uncovered, would erode public confidence in the police. Such an outcome would alarm both the public and State machinery, indicating a breakdown in trust crucial for effective policing and law and order maintenance." "The government must recommend to the RPSC to cancel the whole recruitment process. As soon as the RPSC decides and cancels the process, the appointments made on the basis of the previous process should be immediately cancelled by the government with all legal consequences, as noted above," read the order. HT has seen a copy of the order. The court was hearing a petition by Kailash Chandra Sharma and 175 others in November seeking to cancel the Sub Inspector 2021 recruitment exam after the SOG arrested 122 people including 55 trainee SIs and also two ex-Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) members Babulal Katara and Ramu Ram Raika in the case. After a 10-month-long proceeding, the court reserved its verdict on August 14 which has been declared today. The court also said that the candidates of the 2021 batch should be included in the upcoming SI recruitment exam in September this year to provide the fair candidates with a second chance. "The RPSC should also be instructed to re-conduct the whole process under the same advertisement dated 3.02.2021, or by making alternative arrangements in the novel advertisement so issued vide notification dated 17th July 2025, on the basis of valid applications received in pursuance of that advertisement, deadline of which is September 08 2025. To protect the interests of the candidates involved in the recruitment process, a sufficient number of posts should be advertised in the upcoming new recruitment examination and relaxation in age eligibility should also be considered positively. To be fair to the applicants, reasonable time for preparation and appearing in the examination should be allowed," said the order. The development also came days after the six-member sub-committee of the state government led by the parliamentary affairs minister Jogaram Patel submitted a detailed report to the court stating that they are not considering cancellation of the exam as "it will be a premature decision. Only a negligible proportion (6.3%) of the total candidates have been found cheating in the exam," read the government's report. It also said that the SIT is in a position to segregate the tainted and untainted candidate. However, the court, on Thursday ruled out the government's claim and stated, "An in-depth factual inquiry has revealed systemic irregularities in the conduct of the Sub-Inspector Recruitment Examination 2021, which has undermined the integrity of the entire selection process, leaving no plausible chance of segregation of tainted and untainted candidates." The court also observed, "A total of 6 members of the RPSC, including the then chairman, were involved in systematically undermining the credibility of the impugned recruitment process from within the institution, over and above the external paper leakages. The RPSC's conduct of the examination on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of September was filled with significant flaws and replete with administrative and organizational loopholes." While the two ex-RPSC members Katara and Raika had already been arrested, SOG, in its various chargesheets - which were also seen by HT earlier - named other members Manju Sharma, Sangeeta Arya, Jaswant Rathi, former chairman Sanjay Shrotriya, and also the then-chairman Bhupendra Yadav as they were in touch with Raika and helped his children Shobha and Devesh (who had also been arrested in September last year) to qualify in the interview after the written test. "They enabled the systemic and large-scale compromise of the examination's integrity. The attack on the examination's sanctity was not solely the handiwork of external anti-social elements but was significantly birthed and spread by these very members of the RPSC. This betrayal of public trust from within the RPSC has precipitated a crisis of confidence in the recruitment process and the institutions meant to uphold it," read the court order that also directed "that the RPSC should be instructed to ensure fairness and transparency in the re-conducting of the process as to avoid any further lapses." Reacting to the development, the additional advocate general (AAG) Vigyan Shah said, "The court had passed the verdict based on the SIT reports, advocate general's report and also in view of the petitioners' demands. We will review the order copy and then take further decisions." RP Singh, senior advocate who represented the petitioners, said, "This case has been unusual and more than one way. This is the first time that the state government argued against its own investigating agency. This is the first time a committee of ministers having arrived at a viewpoint after considering the findings of SOG and opinion of AG, reversed its own opinion when even more incriminating evidence was uncovered. It is surprising that the state should have made such strenuous efforts to defend a situation so absolutely in defensible. and hopefully the gang operating in this field will get a firm message." After the order, one of the petitioners, Vikas Vidhuri, also said, "This decision will be an example for the governments if any paper is leaked in future. We are thankful to the court. Justice was delivered today to all the protesting candidates of SI-2021 batch." However, the advocate of the successful candidates, Dashrath Singh, said that they will appeal before a division bench of the high court. "Our candidates have qualified the exam and secured the jobs with fair means. Their future is now at stake. We will appeal before the division bench further."...