SSC aspirants protest at Ramlila Maidan; Chairman admits errors, promises fixes

After thousands of candidates and educators for the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exams protested at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan demanding accountability and fair recruitment processes, SSC Chairman S Gopalakrishnan in a press conference on Monday, acknowledged operational and technical errors in recent exams and promised corrective measures, including special exam shifts, improved IT security, and expanded centres nationwide.

“From July 2025, the Commission switched to a new Exam Conducting Agency, Eduquity, and unbundled the responsibility of question preparation to multiple content agencies,” Gopalakrishnan said at a press conference. He acknowledged that “some bugs caused duplication and repeated options,” but added that these are being addressed through question-challenge mechanisms and a normalisation process.

The protest highlighted grievances over alleged exam mismanagement, flawed answer keys, question-paper errors, and delayed merit lists. The protest reportedly became tense after hours of demonstration, with police detaining around 44 individuals when some refused to leave after the permitted protest time.

DCP Nidhin Valsan in a statement said, "The protest at Ramlila Maidan was permitted to be held peacefully between 10 am and 5 pm and was attended by approximately 1,500 persons. He added that after the permitted time, around 300 protestors continued to remain at the venue despite repeated requests to disperse."

“ACP Kamlamarket and I repeatedly requested them to leave the ground. They were clearly informed that Section 163 of the BNSS is in force and that any gathering beyond the stipulated time would be unlawful,” he added.

According to the DCP, nearly 100 protesters still refused to leave, leading to the detention of 40 individuals, while the others left voluntarily.

“No lathi charge was carried out by police.” The DCP confirmed that legal action has been taken and an FIR under Section 223 B of the BNS was registered last night.

He further stated that, in view of the violation of the undertaking given by the organizers, the permission granted for the protest on 25th August 2025 has been withdrawn.

Shivam, an SSC aspirant from Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi, told \IThe Tribune\I that this was his third attempt at the exams. He said students were frustrated with repeated mismanagement.

“Earlier, TCS conducted all SSC CGL and CHSL exams, but a normalization formula once reduced my score from 350 to 290, while a lower-scoring candidate got higher marks,” he said.

He added that SSC later awarded exam contracts to a company called Eduquity, previously blacklisted for errors in other state-level exams. Students reported multiple issues during recent exams, including AI-generated questions without proper proofreading, centres located hundreds of kilometres away from candidates’ preferences, and computer failures mid-exam. They also highlighted flaws in answer keys, where 6–15 questions per paper were reportedly incorrect, with a fee still charged to challenge them.

Gopalakrishnan explained that the SSC has added Aadhaar-based authentication to prevent impersonation.

He also acknowledged that the new agency initially faced operational challenges, including centre allocation and technical integration.

"Special exam shifts have been scheduled for affected candidates, and the main Combined Graduate Level (CGL) exam has been postponed to mid-September," he added.

"Our primary demand is that TCS be reinstated as the Exam Conducting Agency and that blacklisted agencies be removed. They also raised concerns about the scale of upcoming exams, which will involve 25–30 lakh candidates, compared to smaller steno exams with 6–7 lakh candidates," Shivam said.