The High Court of Karnataka upheld the State Government’s April 29, 2022 decision to cancel the examination to fill up 545 posts of Police Sub-Inspectors (PSIs) following large-scale malpractices allegedly involving some candidates and a few top-ranked police officials.
The court directed the State Government to entrust the task of conducting a fresh written examination to an independent agency to maintain fairness in conduct of the examination.
The scam-tainted examination was conducted by the recruitment wing of the State Police Department. The answer papers were stored inside the strong room of the department. Despite such security measures, answer papers of some candidates were found to be tampered with.
A division bench comprising Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar and Justice T.G. Shivashankare Gowda passed the order while dismissing petitions filed by some of the candidates.
The petitioner-candidates had questioned the order of the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, which had declined their pleas against the government’s decision to conduct a fresh examination by cancelling the exam held in October 2021.
In its interim order passed on September 28, 2022, the High Court had directed the State Government not to conduct a fresh examination till the petitions were adjudicated by the court.
