Supreme Court Holds Good Friday Sitting To Modify Order On Rajasthan SI Selection Exam

The Supreme Court, in a special sitting today, modified its yesterday's order which allowed the petitioner and similarly placed candidates to appear for the Sub Inspector Police/Platoon Commander Recruitment Examination 2025 in Rajasthan. The exam is scheduled to take place on April 5. The Court has now restricted the benefit only to the present petitioner, Suraj Mal Meena.To briefly state, the petitioner Suraj Lal Meena participated in the recruitment for Sub Inspector pursuant to a 2021 notification. The written exam was conducted, and the results were announced in 2023, but it was challenged in the Rajasthan High Court because the paper was leaked. During the pendency, the Cabinet Committee of Ministers recommended the cancellation of the 2021 exam. A new notification with adequate posts along with age relaxation for candidates who appeared in 2021 was published on July 17, 2025. However, it was alleged that there was no age relaxation for the 2021 applicants. In the meantime, the single judge of the High Court on August 28, 2025, ordered the cancellation of the entire 2021 recruitment process on grounds that some gangs were involved in leaking the paper through exam groups.The State appealed this order before the division bench of the High Court, which stayed the order of the single Judge vide order dated September 8, 2025. This order came to be challenged before the Supreme Court, which stayed the interim order and directed the High Court to dispose of the appeals within three months. It also said that the status quo, as it existed before the Single Judge had passed an order, would continue.In another set of petitions, the petitioner approached the High Court seeking age relaxation so that they may appear as per the newly issued recruitment notification. Vide order October 30, 2025, the Single Judge provisionally allowed the petitioner to participate. This was challenged before the division bench of the High Court, which vide an interim order dated November 13, 2025, stayed the operation. This came to be challenged before the Supreme Court, which passed an order on January 9, 2026, directing the division bench to decide both pending appeals before March 31, 2026. The petitioner approached the Supreme Court in the present petition, stating that although the High Court has completed hearings of both matters and reserved orders, it has yet to pronounce the judgment.In this context, a bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma yesterday passed an order allowing the petitioner and similarly placed candidates to appear in the exam provisionally. However, the Rajasthan State Public Commission(RSPC) approached the Court today through Advocate Yuvraj Samant, arguing that the petitioner has misled the Court. He submitted: "There are already 7.71 lac candidates who are appearing across 41 cities and 1174 centers. We have approximately 71,000 manpower that is required. If I may submit, the petitioner has malafidely hid two facts. One, the division bench had stayed the effect of the single judge order and even after that, 713 candidates in the writ petition are already included in the recruitment process for 5th and 6th of April. They have already been supplied admit card. The applicant has misled the Court, saying they are not included in the process."When the Court asked Senior Advocate PB Suresh (for applicant Suraj Mal) whether he was allowed to have the admit card prior to the Court's order yesterday, he denied. But Yuvraj submitted that he was allowed. Justice Datta questioned Sr Advocate Suresh as to why he argued yesterday that the benefit of provisional appearance should also be extended to similarly placed candidates. He said: "One can't come for others."After the brief arguments, the bench modified its early order: "On consideration of difficulties, we are of the considered opinion that the order passed by us yesterday ought to be modified. We direct the deletion of para 5 and 6, and we modify para 7 by reserving that it should be restricted only to the applicant and not others.This order is made having regard to the fact that the Jaipur bench of the High Court of Rajasthan is yet to pronounce judgment on appeals pending before it. In the event any private parties seek to get the benefit of the orders of the division bench, and the division bench directs RPSC to hold exams further, it shall be open to the party to approach the appropriate court."Case Details: Suraj Mal Meena v. The State of Rajasthan & Ors.|SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) NO. 38278 OF 2025Appearances: PB Suresh Sr Adv, Mayank Jain Adv, Madhur Jain Adv, Aakriti Dhawan Adv, Deeksha Gupta Adv and Rajasthan Public Service Commission were represented by Adv. Yuvraj Samant, Adv Neha Amola assisted by Adv. Tilak Vaid and AoR Rajesh Singh Chauhan

Supreme Court Holds Good Friday Sitting To Modify Order On Rajasthan SI Selection Exam

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

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