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“74 This has reference to the examination conducted for the post of Gr II (DASS) post code 90/09 by DSSSB. Consequent upon several complaints received by the Government about the irregularities in the examination process the matter was referred to the Directorate of Vigilance to conduct an inquiry into the allegations.
75 On receipt of interim report of the Directorate of Vigilance I directed DSSSB to check alleged cases of impersonation before any decision is taken by the Board regarding declaration [sic] is taken by the Board regarding declaration of the result. I also directed that the candidates in the zone of consideration who failed to attend the process of verification of impersonation should be disqualified from this examination and FIR should be lodged against any impersonator found during the said exercise by DSSSB.

(f) The education qualifications of the candidates were not verified;

and

(g) There were serious doubts in regard to whether the arrangements for installing jammers and for video-graphing the process were at all functional.

(v) The first Committee in its report came to the conclusion that there was a much larger impersonation;

(vi) The decision which was taken by the Deputy Chief Minister after the receipt of the report of the first Committee on 23 December 2015 to constitute a Committee for verifying the impersonation amongst candidates who were falling in the zone of selection did not amount to a closure of the findings which were arrived at by the first Committee on broader issues pertaining to the sanctity of the process. The second Committee had a limited mandate of examining whether any of the candidates who were in the zone of selection after the Tier-II examination were guilty of impersonation. Just because the second Committee exonerated a large number of candidates under its consideration for PART E impersonation cannot be construed as them being given a clean chit overall. After the report of the second Committee, a final decision was still to be taken when it was concluded ultimately that in view of the large- scale fraud, the entire process should be scrapped;

(iii) No examination is completely taint-free. Complaints as to the process were made by anonymous sources which does not inspire confidence. On the suspicious geographic concentration of successful candidates, the same thing could be said about examinations such as the UPSC examination. This cannot be a valid basis to call the robustness of the process into question; and

(iv) Adequate provisions were made for conducting videography. 29 In the above backdrop, it has been submitted that based on the recommendations of DSSSB, the Deputy Chief Minister took a decision on 23 December 2015 to constitute a committee for verifying whether candidates in the zone of selection were guilty of impersonation. This in fact was the course of action which was taken by the Deputy Chief Minister because DSSSB has itself clarified in its comments that it was in the process of conducting a verification on the issue of impersonation. Eventually, after carrying out a detailed exercise, the report of the second Committee found that 281 candidates were free of taint. Once, the Deputy Chief Minister had, upon receiving the comments of DSSSB, confined the enquiry to whether there was any impersonation by candidates within the zone of selection, this was the only issue which remained to be resolved. Upon the report of the second Committee, it was found that 281 candidates were free of taint. Adverting to PART E the reasons adduced by the Tribunal and confirmed by the High Court, it was highlighted that

53 On 23 December 2015, the Deputy Chief Minister noted, on the basis of the recommendations of the DSSSB on the alleged irregularities in the examination, that all candidates who were in the zone of consideration may be scrutinised to check for impersonation “before the decision of the Board regarding declaration of the results”. Candidates in the zone of consideration who would fail to attend the process of verification would stand disqualified from the examination. The second Committee was then constituted to check the credentials of all candidates falling in the zone of consideration. This led to the report of the second Committee. The Committee noted that out of 290 candidates who were called, 270 remained present and another lot of 11 candidates came forth upon being granted a further opportunity. After conducting a process of verification the Committee observed that “no irregularity is found in the documents of the 281 present candidates”. However, in the meantime, an FIR was lodged on 18 January 2016 by the Anti-Corruption Branch, Delhi; the files in original were seized on 19 February 2016 and certified copies of the dossier were subsequently seized on 26 February 2016. The Deputy Chief Minister on 2 March 2016, was apprised of the report of the second Committee. The Deputy Chief Minister noted that verification had been carried out in respect of the candidates who were in the zone of consideration. At the same time, the report of the Directorate of Vigilance indicated that the examination process had been vitiated and “there are far serious complaints about the conduct of Tier-I examination for the same post code”. PART G Noting that there should be “zero tolerance towards corruption and officials who may join government through improper examination are just not acceptable”, a decision was taken to cancel the entire examination. However, an age relaxation was provided for candidates to appear in the new examination. 54 The drift of the submissions which have been urged by Mr PS Patwalia, learned Senior Counsel is that when the Deputy Chief Minister directed that a Committee be constituted to check for impersonation from amongst candidates within the zone of selection, by his noting dated 23 December 2015, this would necessarily mean that the explanation which was tendered by DSSSB in regard to whether any irregularities had taken place in the examination stood accepted and nothing further remained except to check for impersonation. Hence, it has been submitted that once the second Committee came to the conclusion that none of the 281 candidates in the zone of selection were found to be engaged in impersonation, there was no basis thereafter to cancel the examination. On the other hand, Ms Madhavi Divan, learned ASG has submitted that the remit of the second Committee was narrow in scope, which was to verify only the aspects of impersonation. This did not efface the findings in the report of the first committee and the deputy Chief Minister could have legitimately decided to cancel the entire process. 55 We find on the basis of the record that there is substance in the submission which has been urged by the ASG. The complaints in regard to the recruitment process related both to the Tier-I and Tier-II examinations. The complaints were carefully analysed by the first Committee and as noted earlier serious irregularities PART G were found. The irregularities were not confined to acts of mal-practice or unfair means on the part of a specific group of persons. On the contrary, the report of the Committee found deficiencies of a systemic nature which cast serious doubts on the legitimacy of the entire process of recruitment involving both the Tier-I and Tier-II examinations. The order of the Deputy Chief Minister dated 23 December 2015 did not differ with the conclusions of the first Committee. In fact, the said order refrained from commenting on the findings of the first Committee. All that the Deputy Chief Minister’s order directed was the narrowing of the scope of further investigation to one of the irregularities, that is, impersonation. In directing that a verification be carried out on whether any of the candidates in the zone of selection had been guilty of impersonation, the Deputy Chief Minister’s order did not wipe out the irregularities in the entire examination process. It is not possible to accept the submission that after ordering a verification on impersonation, nothing further remained to be done and that there could be no further rejection of the sanctity of the process on the basis of the report of the first Committee. It is quite possible that the Deputy Chief Minister directed a further investigation into the allegations of impersonation only to lend credibility to the ultimate decision which he would take. Mr Patwalia has made a strenuous effort to read from the explanation submitted by DSSSB, urging that as many as three IAS officers and other officers who had appended their signatures to the explanatory note provided a justification to the defence that the Tier-I and Tier-II examinations did not suffer from flaws. It must be noted that the conduct of DSSSB and its officials was itself under a cloud. Their explanation could by no means be regarded as conclusive or binding upon the authorities of GNCTD. The Deputy Chief PART G Minister in recommending that the entire process be cancelled emphasised the systemic nature of the violations which had taken place. These violations may or may not involve all of the candidates within the ultimate zone of selection but that in our view is beside the point for the simple reason that the gravamen of the charge in the present case is not in regard to the taint which attaches to a specific group of persons but to the sanctity of the recruitment process as a whole. The precedents of this Court sufficiently demonstrate that when the credibility of an entire examination stands vitiated by systemic irregularities, the issue then is not about seeking to identify the candidates who are tainted. In the present case, as we have seen, there was a basic denial of equal access to the Tier-I examination. The nature of the allegations which were found to be substantiated upon a careful examination by the first Committee showed that the credibility of the process itself had been eroded. In such a situation, where a decision is taken by the Government to cancel the entire process, it cannot be held to be irrational or arbitrary, applying the yardstick of fair procedure and proportionality to the decision-making process. 56 During the course of his submissions, Mr PS Patwalia has sought to provide explanations for each of the systemic irregularities pointed out by the first Committee, including the drastic reduction in the number of candidates who appeared for the Tier-I examination, non-issuance of hard copies of admit cards, shortlisting of candidates belonging to a certain geographical area, lack of randomization in the examination centres, among others. In response to this, the learned ASG has pointed out that while assessing whether the recruitment process PART G has been compromised, the factors (or irregularities) must be looked at cumulatively to ascertain whether they are sufficiently grave to cancel the recruitment. We find ourselves in agreement with the learned ASG. So long as there is sufficient basis to contend that mass-scale irregularities have occurred, this Court need not indulge in a roving inquiry to rule out all possible explanations and alternative scenarios where such irregularities would be justified.