Jaipur, Sept. 9 -- A division bench of the Rajasthan high court on Monday put a stay on the cancellation of Sub-Inspector 2021 examination, which was earlier ordered by a single-bench of the same court on August 28 over massive paper-leak allegations. The development came after 178 trainee SIs who qualified for the exam moved the division bench challenging the single bench's order last week. "While hearing their petition the division bench presided over by the Justice Sanjeev Prasad Sharma and Justice Ashok Jain delivered the stay order on Monday. However, the field posting of the trainee SIs will remain be suspended as it was directed by the previous single bench in January," said Advocate RN Mathur, the counsel for the petitioners. Mathure further added that the court also issued a notice to the government to appear for the next hearing on October 8. "The exam took place in three stages- written test, physical test, and interview. The fraud happened only in the written part while an ADG level officer is supposed to be present in the other two stages. Hence, the court said that cancelling the entire exam is not fair as the investigation is still underway," said Mathur. "The court raised suspicion over the availability of the SIT's report on the matter to the petitioners who did not qualify the exam and moved to the single bench seeking cancellation of the exam. These unqualified petitioners are behaving like they are more interested in cancelling the recruitment of the candidates who passed the exam. This latest order of the double bench is balanced for both parties." A single bench of the high court presided over by Justice Sameer Jain cancelled the SI-2021 exam on August 28 which was notified to hire 859 people in the vacant posts, over massive question paper leak allegations across the state. The move prompted the Special Operation Group (SOG) to arrest at least 122 people since March 2024, said officials. While cancelling the recruitment examination, Jain said, "To uphold the Rajasthan Police's motto of "Trust in the Public and Fear in the Criminals," cancelling the 2021 Sub-Inspector 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," Jain said. The court was hearing a petition by an individual called 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. 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 genuine candidates with a second chance to appear for the recruitment exam. However, the single judge bench's development also came days after the six-member sub-committee of the Rajasthan 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 candidates, who appeared for the examination. Jain's court, meanwhile, 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."...