HC issues notice to Haryana on PSC results

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notice to Haryana government on results of the competitive examination to get into its Public Service Commission.

The notice was issued on complaint filed by candidates who suspected corruption in conduct of exams.

The court directed that the results of Haryana Public Service Commission exams were subject to the court ruling.

Earlier, CNN-IBN had reported how relatives of senior bureaucrats and officials were given preference over other candidates in Haryana Public Service Commission exams.

Members of the State Public Service Commission were being accused of manipulating the evaluation process to make sure their children and those of top politicians make the cut.

Among those who made it to the final list were the HPSC chairman's daughter, chief minister Hooda's relative and people known to Congress MPs and MLAs.

Waqar Haider, a candidate said, "I was asked why all terrorists are Muslims?"

He obviously had no answers and as results later indicated, got just ten marks out of 75 in the interview for the Haryana Public Services held by the State commission.

Haider failed to make the final cut despite by a few marks despite a good score in the written papers.

A strange pattern has emerged in these results announced on December 30 by the Haryana Public Service Commission.

Candidates were marked in clusters to keep them just short of the cut off marks of 406 for general category.

And some who had low scores in their written paper were awarded reasonably high marks.

Vinod, another candidate, said, "In my category, I was the second highest scorer in the written examination. But I was given only ten marks, minimum marks, in the interview".

In this press conference just days before the final results were declared the opposition - Indian National Lok Dal created a flutter by releasing its own list of successful candidates including, among others, Vikas; nephew of the HPSC member PP Sharma.

Vikas who had just 359 marks the written papers got exceptionally high marks in the interview and made the cut.

Annu Shehkhand also figured in the list of candidates announced by the Lok Dal. She is the daughter of the then commission chief RD Shehkhand who interestingly retired just a day after the results were out.

In 2004, when the Lok Dal was in power Congress had made similar allegations and the HPSC results were annulled by the courts.