High Court grants bail to three more

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 18

More than a year after the scrapping of “HCS (Judicial Branch) Preliminary Examination - 2017” following the allegations of paper leakage, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today granted bail to three more accused. With this, all the accused arrested by the Chandigarh Police in the matter have been granted bail.

The accused who were granted bail are Subhash Chander Godara, Sushil Bhadu and Tajjinder Bishnoi. As the case came up for resumed hearing before five-Judge Bench of Chief Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Rajan Gupta, Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia, Justice Arun Palli and Justice Deepak Sibal, UT standing counsel RS Rai and Gautam Dutt submitted that the special investigation team, looking into the matter, had sought forensic report on 18 different issued in the matters. Out of the total, report on 16 issues had been received, while two reports were awaited.

Taking a note of the summation, the Bench questioned the UT on reason behind delay in forensic report. Before parting with the order, the Bench also called for complete report in the matter by the next date of hearing — February 15.

The examination for filling up 109 posts in the subordinate judiciary was conducted in July, 2017. A Punjab and Haryana High Court committee, through the Haryana Public Service Commission, had invited application for filling up the posts.

Soon after the examination was conducted, a candidate, Suman, filed a petition for registration of a criminal case to uncover the scam. Suman alleged she was contacted by two other candidates - Sushila and Sunita - claiming they had the examination paper. Suman also alleged at least two questions were disclosed to her a day prior to the examination. She further alleged Rs 1 crore was demanded, but she declined.

Taking up the matter in its initial stages, a Single Judge observed Sunita was topping in the general category with exceptionally high marks. Sushila, too, was topping in the reserved category, again with exceptionally high marks. Both had committed minimum errors.

Looking into the allegations of paper leakage, the in-house committee found that some of the candidates had access to the question paper.

The exam

The examination for filling up 109 posts in the subordinate judiciary was conducted in July, 2017. A Punjab and Haryana High Court committee, through the Haryana Public Service Commission, had invited application for filling up the posts.