By Jag Mohan Thaken
CHANDIGARH: India is facing a serious problem of unemployment. But on one hand there are the posts lying vacant and the Public Service Commissions are floating advertisements to fill up these posts and on the other hand even a sufficient number of candidates are not able to qualify the standards of minimum marks required by the commissions resulting in unfulfilled posts and disappointed and frustrated unemployed youth.
Why so? Whether these highly educated youth are just having degrees with no deep knowledge of their subjects or policy of these commissions to have an attitude of rejection and not selection? This is demeaning the image of Public Service Commissions. Another major factor responsible for diminishing the credibility of these commissions is paper leakage. Hindu, an esteemed English Daily has reported, “Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday (January 7, 2026) cancelled the Assistant Professor examination conducted last year by the Uttar Pradesh Education Service Selection Commission (UPESSC) after an alleged paper leak and illegal extortion racket came to light.”
In Haryana, some candidates, who were the applicants for assistant professor’s posts in English subject but could not obtain the minimum 35 percent marks in the Subject Knowledge Test (SKT) conducted by Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and so not called for interview by the commission, are staging a sit-in (Dharna) at Panchkula, Haryana since December 29, 2025 to protest against the commission’s minimum marks policy. Why did they fail to cross even 35 percent minimum marks point? Are they not well qualified? No, it is not true; the candidates, who failed to attain 35 percent bar, claim that they have passed the toughest National Eligibility Test (NET) as the preliminary requirement for getting the job of assistant professor. One of the agitating candidates has claimed to have cleared the NET six times. Many of them are either PhD holders or are doing PhD.
When they claim themselves highly qualified, but still, they could not qualify the exam with a minimum score, how is it so? Is the education being imparted in the universities and colleges of lower standard or the stuff passing out of these institutions lacks intelligence to get through such competitive exams?
The failed candidates quoted on FB page of ‘Justice for HPSC Aspirants’ that when they met HPSC Chairman Alok Verma and asked questions regarding this issue, he advised the candidates: “Accept that you are failures. You haven’t been taught properly. You haven’t been taught how to write. Haryana’s universities haven’t prepared you to this level.”
However, HPSC has denied such comments in a press release, dated January 7. “It is clarified that the comments being circulated regarding the quality of education in connection with the Hon’ble Chairman of the Commission are completely false, frivolous and misleading. Such narratives are being deliberately spread by certain vested interests with the intention of tarnishing the image of the Commission.”
Supporting their claim by quoting examples, the agitating youth state- “The current selection process adopted by HPSC has caused serious injustice to the deserving youth of Haryana. Calling an extremely limited number of candidates for an interview, despite a large number of vacancies, is unfair, arbitrary, and against the spirit of equal opportunity.
Haryana today stands at the top in terms of unemployment, and yet policies like rigid cut-offs and restrictive shortlisting are pushing capable candidates out of the system without giving them a fair chance. Instead of addressing unemployment, such policies deepen frustration, exclusion, and injustice among educated youth.
We appeal to the authorities to: Withdraw unjust shortlisting criteria, Call two times candidates for interview, and Ensure a transparent and student-friendly selection process. This is not a demand for favour, but a demand for justice, fairness, and constitutional propriety”.
The agitating youth, under the banner- ‘Justice for HPSC Aspirants’ divulge the figures, how the unemployed youth are rejected on the pretext of commission’s so called HPSC’s 35% Policy: A Policy to Fail Qualified Candidates.
They term it as Betrayal of Haryanvi Youth and Murder of Reservation. They state—”The 35% minimum marks (Absolute Cut-off) policy, implemented by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) in recruitments, has become the biggest problem for the youth of Haryana today. Due to this policy, thousands of posts remain vacant, while qualified and eligible candidates are unemployed.
Subjects with the most vacant posts due to the 35% rule – Examples: As per claim of these youth, the 35% requirement has narrowed the selection process so much that in many subjects, less than half the candidates were able to pass, even though all candidates were already eligible.
Here the reserved categories seem to be the most affected in these recruitments. Mr. Deepender Hooda, an MP from Haryana, giving an example, mentioned the selection of Assistant Professors in English last week. Out of 613 candidates, only 151 were selected for interview, and the remaining posts remained vacant. “Great injustice was done to the DSC category, with only 1 candidate selected out of 60 reserved seats, while the rest were left vacant under the pretext of 35% and other conditions,” he said.
Similarly, in the BCA category, only 5 out of 85 were selected, with the remaining seats vacant. In the BCB category, only 3 out of 36 were selected, with the remaining seats vacant. In the OSC category, only 2 out of 60 were selected, leaving 58 seats vacant. He reiterated that the communities that should have benefited from reservations are being cheated. “The HPSC Chairman, who himself is not from Haryana, is raising questions about Haryana’s education system,” he said.
Supporting the agitating youth, Kumari Selja former union minister and presently Lok Sabha member from Haryana, in a statement on January 6, demanded that the Haryana government ensure that at least twice the number of advertised posts are cleared in the subject knowledge examination and called for interviews, and that all advertised posts are filled. She alleged that the government issues recruitment advertisements merely for show, while in reality posts are left vacant, which amounts to a direct betrayal of the youth of the state.
Questioning the appointment of HPSC Chairman, from Bihar, another congress Member of Parliament from Haryana, Deepender Singh Hooda demanded that the HPSC Chairman be immediately removed and replaced with a capable person from among the 3 crore Haryana residents.
Deepender Hooda alleged that Group A and Group B jobs being filled through the HPSC in Haryana, most of the candidates selected are from outside the state. “List after list is released, and candidates from outside Haryana are selected. Even the HPSC chairman is from outside the state.”
He said Haryana’s youth are migrating through illegal routes, and Group A, B, and C jobs in Haryana are migrating to other states. He added that just as the government in Haryana is being controlled remotely from Delhi, the selection for HPSC jobs is also being done from outside Haryana.
Giving an example, he said in the Haryana Power Utilities (HPU) Assistant Engineer AE/SDO recruitment, 214 candidates were called for document verification, out of which only 29 were from Haryana. Why are the children of Haryana, who clear prestigious exams like the UPSC, not able to get selected as Assistant Engineers through our own HPSC? Haryana has the best results in the entire country in the UPSC exam.
Deepender said that previously, in the selection of Civil Judges, out of 110 candidates, 60 were from outside Haryana, and in the Irrigation Department, 28 out of 49 candidates were from outside the state. “In the SDO Electrical selection, 69 out of 80 were from outside Haryana, with only 2 from Haryana. Similarly, in the Technical Education Department, 106 out of 153 lecturers selected were from outside the state,” he said, giving detailed numbers.
But the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) has denied the allegations. Taking cognizance of the fact that a false and misleading narrative is being propagated in recent days regarding its functioning, an HPSC spokesperson, on January 7,2026, said the Commission has been constituted under Article 315 of the Constitution of India and has been entrusted with the constitutional responsibility of conducting examinations for appointments to state services.
The spokesperson said all recruitments carried out by the Commission have successfully withstood judicial scrutiny, which itself is a testimony to the transparency and fairness of the selection process adopted by the Commission. All representations, complaints, and suggestions received by the Commission are duly examined and necessary action is taken wherever required. In addition, complete information related to the selection process is made available in the public domain.
The spokesperson reiterated that all recruitments conducted by the Commission have been made strictly on the basis of merit. If any individual has any doubt or objection regarding any matter related to the Commission, they may submit their representation before the Secretary of the Commission so that their grievances can be addressed appropriately. This will also help them understand the actual facts and prevent them from being misled by false narratives aimed at disrupting the selection process.
Position of recruitments in Rajasthan also seems more or less in the same arena as in Haryana. Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) results have been in discussion for the past few days. Questions are also being raised about the commission’s exam pattern due to the increasing number of failures in exams and the backlog of posts.
As per media reports, questions have been raised over the outcomes of the School Lecturer and Coach recruitment examinations of 2022, the results of which were released recently by the RPSC.
An analysis of these results revealed that candidates in several subjects were unable to secure even 40 per cent marks. As a result, lecturer posts in 11 out of 24 subjects, including Political Science, will remain unfilled. Only 10 subjects, including Physics, Geography, and Mathematics, are expected to see full appointments based on the available qualifying candidates.
The recruitment attracted wide attention on September 23, when the results for Political Science were declared. Out of 225 advertised school lecturer posts in Political Science, only six candidates were found eligible. The situation worsened with the declaration of sports coach results, where not a single candidate qualified. RPSC Chairman Utkal Ranjan Sahu neutralizes the allegations being raised about the commission’s exam pattern due to the increasing number of failures in exams.
He stated that to qualify in recruitment exams, one must read the original books, but the candidates want to qualify for recruitment exams by studying brief notes and competitive exam books, which is not possible. One cannot solve the paper with shortcut studies.
In response to a question asked by Bhaskar, RPSC Chairman, on December 26, 2025, says – How can a candidate who cannot score 36 or 40%, provide proper education in schools and colleges?
RPSC Chairman said that candidates for the School Lecturer Political Science subject had come to meet him. In this recruitment of 225 posts, only 6 candidates could be included in the provisional list. Sahu asked the candidates whether the paper was out of the syllabus? The candidates replied ‘No’. On the question of the paper being difficult, he said that the question papers are being prepared based on the UG and PG syllabi running in the universities of the state. Only those candidates who are reading the original books are able to solve these question papers. The examination question paper has become standardized. This paper cannot be solved by studying through shortcuts. It can certainly be expected from a candidate who will serve in government service for 30 to 35 years that they should secure the minimum passing marks.
Public Service Commissions should also provide some laxity in paper setting standards. There should be questions of varying difficulty levels– ‘Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty’, each level should be given equal weightage, so that candidates of all types of intelligence level get the chance to clear the exam. However, interview calls should be extended to two times or three times or as per criteria laid by the selection commission from the top rankers only. (IPA Service)
