Punjab and Haryana High Court: In the Haryana Judicial Services Preliminary exam paper leak controversy, the 3-judge bench of Rajesh Bindal, Tajan Gupta and GS Sandhawalia, JJ, has constituted a 3-member Special Investigating Team comprising of Ravi Kumar Singh, IPS, Superintendent of Police (Crime and Investigation); Krishan Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Security & Operation) and Inspector Poonam Dilawari.
Earlier, the counsel appearing for the High Court had urged before the Court that if the investigation is to be done by a Special Investigating Team then it should be done by senior officers only. Hence, the Court had, on 15.09.2017, asked Randeep Singh Rai, Public Prosecutor, UT Chandigarh to furnish a list of senior officers who can be a part of the SIT. Consequently, Tejinder Singh Luthra, Director General of Police, U.T., Chandigarh, appeared in person and he, along with Randeep Singh Rai, submitted a list of officers.
On 15.09.2017, the Court had also suspended Dr. Balwinder Sharma, Registrar (Recruitment) after the Recruitment/Promotion/ Court Creation Committee (Subordinate Judicial Services) of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, submitted in it’s report that there was, prima facie, material suggesting that he was involved in the paper leak as there were total 760 calls and SMSs exchanged between Dr. Balwinder Sharma and Sunita, one of the canditates who has allegedly leaked the paper, during last one year.
On 14.09.2017, the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a public notice stating that it has scrapped the Haryana Judicial Services Preliminary Exam held on 16.07.2017 in the light of the paper leak allegations. The date of re-exam will be notified soon. [Suman v. State of Haryana, CRM-M No.28947 of 2017, order dated 18.09.2017]
