Supreme Court Dismisses Plea By 35 Candidates Against Exclusion From Jharkhand Judicial Service Prelims Revised Merit List
The Court said that the petition has become infructuous because the exam itself has been cancelled.
The Supreme Court today disposed of as infructuous a petition filed by 35 candidates who were excluded from the revised merit list of the Jharkhand Judicial Service Preliminary Examination, 2023, after the entire examination was cancelled.
The Court passed the order after counsel appearing for the petitioner informed a bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana that the entire exam has been cancelled.
The Civil Judge (Junior Division) Preliminary Examination under Advertisement No. 22/2023 was cancelled as part of the Jharkhand government's recent decision to cancel a batch of recruitment examinations amid student protests against alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.
A plea has been filed recently in Supreme Court seeking CBI into alleged malpractices in the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Preliminary Examination (one of the exams cancelled by the JPSC recently).
The petition was filed by one Shubhendu Mishra and others challenging the revised Preliminary Examination Result-cum-Merit List dated June 5, 2026, issued by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) for recruitment to the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) under Advertisement No. 22/2023. The petitioners had been declared successful in the earlier merit list dated July 2, 2024, but were excluded from the revised list.
The petitioners were among around 184 candidates who had already qualified in the preliminary examination and had submitted their documents for participation in the next stage of the selection process. They contended that the corrective exercise carried out after revision of the answer key could not result in their exclusion after they had already been declared successful.
The preliminary examination was held on March 10, 2024 for recruitment to 138 Civil Judge (Junior Division) posts. The JPSC initially revised its model answer key three times, with the third revised answer key being published on May 13, 2024. The result-cum-merit list was subsequently published on July 2, 2024, declaring around 1,797 candidates successful.
The dispute over the answer key arose from three questions in the examination. The Jharkhand High Court had held that the answers to three questions were erroneous. It also directed re-computation of marks and preparation of a fresh merit list.
The JPSC challenged the High Court judgment before the Supreme Court. On February 9, 2026, the Court held that the High Court could not assume the role of a super-examiner or subject expert. The Court directed the High Court's administrative committee to re-examine the disputed questions and send its opinion to the JPSC for necessary follow-up action.
Pursuant to the Supreme Court's directions, the JPSC issued a Final Answer Key on June 1, 2026. Two disputed questions were deleted and the answer to one question was altered. The Commission then re-computed the marks of all candidates and published the revised merit list on June 5, 2026.
The petitioners challenged their exclusion from this revised merit list. They argued that the JPSC had failed to preserve the status of candidates who had already qualified in the July 2, 2024 merit list and had subsequently been called upon to submit documents for the next stage. They said they were not seeking exclusion of candidates who became eligible after correction of the answer key, but only protection of those who had already qualified.
With the entire examination now having been cancelled, the challenge to the revised merit list no longer survives. The Supreme Court therefore disposed of the petition as infructuous.
Case: W.P.(C) No. 777/2026 Shubhendu Mishra v. Jharkhand Public Service Commission