The Joint Student Bodies, Churachandpur is perturbed by the sudden rush by the MPSC to conduct MCSCCE-2016(Main) re exam amidst the pandemic while the matter is still pending before the Hon’ble High Court of Manipur and Central Bureau of Investigation , investigation on this matter still pending and public waiting for their final report.
Infamy of MPSC has cost the state dearly, such was the gravity of misdeeds that a whole batch of civil servants (MCSCCE-2016) have lost their jobs after two and half years of service. How could it be that before any officials and staffs are held accountable for their misdeeds that they are planning to conduct exam again? The Joint Student Bodies would like to ask the MPSC , are the selected candidates of MCSCCE-2016 pointless sacrifices? Do the officials of MPSC have no conscience to take moral responsibilities for ruining the lives and career of the aspirants and successful candidates? For MPSC it may just be an exam , but for hard working aspirants, clearing the exam is a cherished dream. A constitutional body like the MPSC should be a model recruitment agency for the state, but most unfortunately, it is acting like a merciless destroyer of generations of youth.
MPSC seems to have quite a bad reputation even before it conducted its Waterloo MCSCCE 2016 Exam. So much so that it led the Manipur High Court to lament MPSC’s past conduct that “misdeeds… have been (going) on for the last many years.” The judgement of the Hon’ble High Court dated 18.10.2019 reads
“It is the right time for the MPSC or for that matter, its staff or officials to be penalized for their misdeeds which they have been doing for the last many years and if not penalized now, they would continue to do so in future at the cost of public interest and public money.
From the aforesaid facts and circumstances, it can be safely held that the MPSC has no intention to conduct any examination in a fair and just manner. It had, in the present case, miserably failed to discharge its duties and functions as mandated in the Constitution of India. It would like to continue holding examinations, only in name, with a half baked rules so that it could manipulate it. (Page 149-150).”
From the above Hon’ble High Court judgement it can be learnt that the court wanted that the MPSC/ Staffs/ officials responsible for the irregularities in the said exam be penalised. So far, is there any official who has been penalised? The answer is a big “NO” except the unfortunate-81.
Who were responsible for the misdeeds? No one has any idea yet. Will the ‘probable’ responsible MPSC/ Staffs / Officials continue to be a part of the re-exam? Yes. Then, where’s the guarantee that this new exam will be fair and clean? To assuage those fears, it is learnt that , the Secretary, MPSC released a press statement on 26th August 2020 claiming that they were misunderstood. So, suddenly just by one press-release MPSC becomes clean again?
The Joint Student Bodies studied the said Press statement minutely and come to the conclusion that, the said press-release was full of platitudes and zero substance, all clouded in bureaucratic words. It reads more like an election manifesto. It needs to be deconstructed for the public. More than anything we would like to focus on the last two lines of the entire press-release so that the public can see as to how hollow it is. The Secretary,MPSC mentioned in the last-second sentence that MPSC “will not stop till total fairness is ensured in all our actions”. Mr. Secretary, we are sorry to inform you that the students want to sit in an exam conducted by a totally fair exam body, not a body that is still working towards ensuring total fairness. Think of UPSC – Totally fair. Think of MPSC – still working towards Total Fairness. When will this total fairness of MPSC come? Sadly, no timeline was given for such a great commitment. Maybe in the next 50 years?!
The Secretary,MPSC had also mentioned in the last line that MPSC “will ensure fairness and level playing field for every candidates (sic) in every recruitment”. In the absence of Moderation and scaling, this statement is just a figment of imagination .
While the MPSC justifies the notice for re-conduct of the MCSCCE-2016 (Mains) as compliance with the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, it needs to be emphasized that the Judgements of the Hon’ble Courts came down heavily on the MPSC for its ‘Misdeeds” and directed it to make necessary reforms in its Rules and Regulations to eliminate the possibility of Manipulation. The Hon’ble High Court of Manipur Judgement and order dated 18.10.2019 reads
“It would like to continue holding examinations, only in name, with a half baked rules so that it could manipulate it. If the MPSC was/ is unable to frame an appropriate and correct rule, it could do so by taking the help from the UPSC or any other State Public Service Commission. There is no harm in doing that. Whenever an allegation is made against the MPSC towards holding of an examination by it, the readymade answer is that the rule is silent on that.” (Page 150)
Thus it begs the question: has the MPSC made necessary amendments in its rules Has the same been notified in the official Gazette of the state? To instil public trust after such a shameful fiasco that is MCSCCE-2016, should MPSC not show utmost sincerity in framing or amending its rules and get it ratified by a competent committee of experts, preferably appointed by the Hon’ble Court, and bring it out in Public domain?
We the Joint Student Bodies,Churachandpur make a humble appeal to Government of Manipur, like minded Student Body, Civil Society Organisation, intellectual circle etc that let MPSC should be cleansed first. Cleansed through proper action on its officials, selected candidates or even non-selected ones if they were found indulging in unethical and corrupt means. One Press-Release of the MPSC cannot cleanse it. If that could have been so, the Hon’ble HC would have ordered for a press-release and not a CBI inquiry. But, the Hon’ble HC knows better and rightly asked for the CBI to get to the bottom of this mess. Let CBI submit its report first before the conduct of any exam by MPSC . If in that report ,any MPSC staff/ official is found to be responsible, then they should be removed from the whole exam process and a re-exam be held only then. Similarly, if any selected or non-selected candidates were found to be hand-in-glove with any accused MPSC officials they should also be debarred from future exams.
In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, we the Joint Student Bodies, Churachandpur strongly urge upon the Government that MPSC should not be allowed to conduct any examination until CBI investigation is completed, the FINAL REPORT Made Public and justice is fully dispensed with. And the matter put to a logical conclusion in public interest so as to avoid further legal complicacy in this matters.