Jaipur, April 5 -- The Rajasthan high court (Jaipur bench) on Saturday upheld the cancellation of the 2021 sub-inspector recruitment exam, rejecting pleas from the state government and selected candidates, said the advocate who argued for the unselected candidates. A copy of the judgment is yet to be released. The exam was mired in a major paper leak case that led to 122 arrests. A division bench led by acting chief justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and justice Sangeeta Sharma delivered the verdict while hearing the state's challenge to a single bench order dated August 28, 2025. "Following the trial, the court reserved its verdict on January 19, which was pronounced today. The court upheld the order passed by the single bench of justice Sameer Jain on August 28, 2025, to cancel the exam, which was notified to hire 859 people in the vacant posts, over a large-level paper leak allegations across the state prompting the Special Operation Group (SOG) to arrest at least 122 people since March 2024. Today, the youth got their justice. It was an extremely sensitive matter which has been under the lens for th last five years," said advocate Harndra Neel, who argued for the unselected candidates. In November 2024, Kailash Chandra Sharma and 175 others petitioned the high court to cancel the exam after the SOG arrested 122 people, including 55 trainee sub-inspectors and two former Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) members, Babulal Katara and Ramu Ram Raika. After 10 months of proceedings, justice Jain's bench cancelled the exam on August 28, 2025, stating: "To uphold the Rajasthan Police's motto of 'Trust in the Public and Fear in the Criminals,' cancelling the 2021 Sub-Inspector recruitment examination is imperative. This is necessitated by the fact that the tainted examination, plagued by malpractices yet to be fully uncovered, would erode public confidence in the police. Such an outcome would alarm both the public and State machinery, indicating a breakdown in trust crucial for effective policing and law and order maintenance." The state government and selected candidates challenged the order before the division bench, arguing it was premature. It argued in its September 2025 application that only a negligible proportion (6.3%) of the candidates were found cheating and cancelling the exam may affect the future of several candidates. The division bench dismissed the claim, ruling: "An in-depth factual inquiry has revealed systemic irregularities in the conduct of the examination, which has undermined the integrity of the entire selection process, leaving no plausible chance of segregation of tainted and untainted candidates." The bench set aside the single bench's suo motu cognisance against RPSC members. Justice Jain had observed: "A total of 6 members of the RPSC, including the then Chairman, were involved in systematically undermining the credibility of the impugned recruitment process from within the institution, over and above the external paper leakages. The RPSC's conduct of the examination on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of September was filled with significant flaws and replete with administrative and organizational loopholes." Agriculture minister Kirodi Lal Meena welcomed the verdict He said, "Strong evidence of rigging in the examination was given to SOG and other agencies, but the previous Gehlot government, which had traded the hard work of the youth, instead of taking action, tried to suppress the matter. Our government cracked down on the paper leak mafia and arrested the fraudsters." Hitting back at Meena, Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said, "Our government immediately launched probes in all the paper leak cases. This BJP government had no intention to cancel this exam despite the court's order. They have not even reformed RPSC. They must answer why did they delay this matter ? Why didn't they want to cancel this exam?"...