Even as the Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) is gearing up to conduct MCSCCE Main, 2016 afresh in the end of May, a writ petition has been filed before the High Court of Manipur praying to quash or amend the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business, 2011 as amended on June 22, 2017; June 4, 2020; June 14, 2020; and August 7, 2022, Rules for conducting MCSCCE Main, 2016 before conducting the afresh examination.
The division bench, comprising of the chief justice Sanjay Kumar and justice Lanusungkum Jamir on May 11, stated that the court will not incline to interfere with the examination which is scheduled to be held by the end of May, 2022, as the Supreme Court clearly directed that that the Manipur Public Service Commission should conduct the main examination afresh not later than four months from that the of order.
Further, the judgement of the division bench of the HC of Manipur have attend finality, the Manipur Public Service Commission would be well advised to be mindful of the observations and findings therein in the context of the irregularities committed earlier, so as to ensure that such mistakes and irregularities do not happen again while conducting the examination afresh.
However, the HC issued notice to the state government and also to MPSC to file their replies on merit.
The 10 petitioners filed the writ petition stating that, while conducting the proceedings of quashing or setting aside the main exam of 2016, several manipulations, irregularities & illegalities in their answer script of MCSCCE Main, 2016 had been found. The High Court of Manipur had constituted a committee to find out findings against the MPSC on the conduct of MCSCCE main, 2016. The HC had further directed MPSC to rectify and amend all necessary rules and regulation in as much as to root out room for any possible manipulation, irregularities and illegalities before conducting the next examination or any other future upcoming examination conducted by MPSC.
But in the meantime, the special leave petition was filed for conducting the exam at the earliest before the Supreme Court and the MPSC was directed to conduct the exam. Therefore, the MPSC has been preparing to conduct the Examination within the time as stipulated by the Supreme Court of India without framing/amending the Procedures and Conduct of Business Rules.
The petitioners stated that under such circumstances if the MCSCCE Examination 2016 is to be conducted by way of following the present Rules, various similar anomalies are sure to crop up as the rules are framed in a shrouded manner and in such fashion to create several rooms for malpractice, manipulation, irregularities & illegalities.
The petitioners also drew the attention of the HC to point out the serious lacunas and loopholes in the Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules 2011 as amended on June 22, 2017; June 4, 2020; June 14, 2020; and August 7, 2022 of the Manipur Public Service Commission. The procedure itself is to enhance corruption which invites several rooms for leakage of questions in this era of modern technology of end-to-end encrypted message delivery system, the petitioners said.
The petitioners also charge that the MPSC had never intended to conduct the said examination in a free and fair manner. Without implementing any effective rules, the controversial MCSCCE Main Exam, 2016 that happened six years ago will repeat itself again, facing worse consequences than earlier, they stated.
Therefore, the petitioners, with an apprehension that the Manipur Civil Services Combined Competitive Main Examination, 2016, which is to be conducted shortly in terms with the directions of the Supreme Court, said that it may be undertaken without reference to the issues pointed out by a Division Bench of the court in earlier rounds of litigation. A prayer was made for interim relief by directing the Manipur Public Service Commission not to go ahead with the examination in violation of Constitutional provisions and the findings of the division bench.
