The Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) has landed in a major controversy over the selection of 62 additional candidates for the Meghalaya Civil Service (MCS) after conducting reassessment of answer sheets of the preliminary examinations held in November last year.
There were allegations of irregularities in respect of questions set for the MCS Preliminary Examination vis a vis the syllabus. Besides, there were suspicions that the examination process was rigged to favour some candidates.
However, today the MPSC justified the reassessment of the OMR answer sheets by stating that a complaint was received from a candidate regarding the questions appearing in the MCS Preliminary Examination 2022-2023 held on November 4, 2023.
The MPSC also said that the questions were placed before an expert for review and based on the recommendation of the expert, the OMR answer sheets were reassessed and 62 candidates were declared to be successful in addition to the result declared earlier by notification dated December 15, 2023.
Further, the MPSC claimed that since confining the fresh selection to the complainant “would be unfair as othercandidates may be deprived on account of ignorance” it was decided to apply the “doctrine of equality” and all the answer sheets were reassessed and the list of successful candidates securing the cut off marks has been arrived at.
However, the decision of the MPSC to conduct the review and reassessment of the answer sheets was controversial as there was no such rule.
Former chief minister and senior opposition MLA Dr. Mukul Sangma in a statement issued today said that the entire episode “smacks of nepotism and is completely illegal”.
“A criminal conspiracy to benefit a selected few cannot be ruled out and therefore requires investigation,” Dr. Sangma said. He also slammed the decision to conduct reassessment of the answer sheets.
“Under which provision of rule has this been allowed? There’s no such rule which allows such review because if the authority has agreed that there irregularities in respect of questions vis as vis the syllabus, then the examination process is flawed and irregular,” Dr. Sangma said.
Similarly, the opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) has raised several critical questions regarding the sudden and controversial revision of the MCS examination results.
“The process by which the MPSC decided to recheck the answer sheets following a complaint raises serious concerns about transparency and fairness. It is unclear under which rule or regulation this rechecking was conducted. Such an ad hoc revision of results undermines the integrity of public examinations and raises questions about the procedural fairness of the MPSC’s decision making,” the VPP said in a statement issued by party vice president Kara H. Chen.
The party also said that there is potential nepotism in the entire affairs especially since it came after seven months of the declaration of the original result and nature of announcement of the additional result.
“The fact that additional candidates were declared successful after a specific complaint suggests a possibility of undue influence or favouritism, raising concerns about whether this rechecking process was used to accommodate candidates who might have otherwise failed,” the VPP added.
Stating that the situation highlighted the potential incompetency are careless on the part of the MPSC, the party said that such flaws undermine public trust in the MPSC and its ability to conduct fair and reliable examinations.
The VPP also asked the State government to provide “clarity on the rules and guidelines governing such revisions” and to ensure that future examinations adhere to the highest standard of fairness and transparency.
