One drop poisons the whole glass of milk; Waiting for CBI probe

One drop of poison, poisons the whole glass of milk. This was the observation of the Gauhati High Court, Imphal bench when they quashed the written examination to recruit Manipur Civil Service officers and Manipur Police Service officers back in 1994. Fast forward to 2019 and today the Manipur High Court has quashed the Manipur Civil Service Combined Competitive Examination to recruit MCS, MPS and MSS officers, the examination of which was conducted in 2016. The Supreme Court of India too had backed the ruling of the Manipur High Court and today 33 officers who otherwise had entered service as MCS officers, MPS officers and MSS officers are jobless, with the State Government terminating their service. A clear indication that nothing has changed in the 22 years between 1994 and 2016 and while the ruling was passed to deliver justice to the wronged candidates, one cannot but feel a certain sense of deep sorrow for the 33 officers who have been axed from service. The infamy of the Manipur Public Service Commission is complete and to think that this is the highest recruiting body in Manipur makes one wonder how the other mode of recruitments would have been conducted. To be sure another examination may be conducted by MPSC to fill up the 33 posts which are now lying vacant, but the question of bigger import is how many of the ‘dismissed’ officers would be willing to sit for the examination again. Back in 1994, another examination conducted by the MPSC was held in 1999 and while some may have reappeared for the said examination back then, many others did not, sick of the rot and corruption.
While quashing the MCSCCE 2016, the High Court had also ruled that the CBI be roped in to probe the conduct of the examination within a period of three months and take appropriate action in accordance with law. The ruling of the High Court was delivered on October 18 and now this is already December. Tough to say what steps the State Government has  taken up to rope in the service of the CBI, but one hopes that the necessary steps are taken up urgently as it is now nearly two months. Let the CBI investigate the matter and fix responsibilities. It is about a public examination being muddied by the dirty hands of corruption and irregularities and it is also about rubbishing the prospects of quite a large number of youngsters. Officers at one time and now jobless. This is the situation that the 33 sacked officers are in now. Justice has been delivered to the petitioners who took the trouble of going to Court with their grievances, but it is also important to ensure that justice is delivered to the genuine officers who are among those axed from service and this can be achieved by investigating the case and fixing responsibilities on those who played around with the future of the youngsters. One only hopes that the CBI is roped in to investigate the case as soon as possible and it certainly would give the people of Manipur a deep sense of delight if and when those who directly collaborated in the scam are named and publicly shamed.