Ranchi, Nov 20 (AHN) The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday pulled up the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) over alleged irregularities in the revised results of the Assistant Teacher recruitment examination for Mathematics and Science subjects.

Taking cognisance of multiple complaints, the court said the discrepancies raised serious concerns about the transparency and credibility of the selection process.

The bench of Justice Ananda Sen observed that, based on the material placed before the court, several candidates who had secured higher marks were inexplicably dropped from the revised merit list, while several lower-scoring candidates feature in it.

The court asked JSSC to explain the criteria, rules and methodology adopted while preparing the revised merit list.

The petition, filed by Kishore Kumar and other aggrieved candidates, contends that all of them were listed in the preliminary results and were subsequently called for district-level counselling.

During counselling, candidates were shown their official score details, which, according to the petitioners, clearly reflected their higher merit.

However, when the revised results were declared, the petitioners discovered that many candidates with lower marks had been retained, while those with higher scores -- including themselves -- had been removed.

Advocate Chanchal Jain, appearing for the petitioners, presented the court with 15-20 examples to demonstrate these inconsistencies.

The petitioners also submitted that they hold high scores within their respective categories and have cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), making their exclusion even more questionable.

Taking a stern view, the court asked the commission to justify why candidates with lower marks were preferred over those with higher scores.

Calling the issue “serious,” the High Court issued an interim order directing that the posts corresponding to the petitioners be kept vacant until the matter is resolved.

The court further instructed JSSC to file a detailed counter-affidavit explaining the rationale and procedures that led to the exclusion of higher-scoring candidates in the revised merit list.