RANCHI, Sept. 19 -- The Hemant Soren government on Friday strongly defended before the Jharkhand High Court its August 18 notification cancelling the state's clean-sweep approach to a compromised examination, citing several Supreme Court verdicts as precedent, besides underlining probe findings that hinted toward systematic irregularities involving part of the recruitment agency and the Public Service Commission officials. Demanding the outright dismissal of petitions challenging its decision, the government maintained before the court, that the drastic measure was unavoidable to preserve public integrity. It defended the en masse cancellation of the examination, arguing that a public recruitment process completely subverted by institutional fraud carried no legal sanctity. The government in its affidavit mentioned the CID probe revealed that the entire examination machinery, including the examining body, the data chain, and the outsourced agency (TDPL), was captured. It mentioned that during probe it came to fore Class-II posts were sold for Rs.50 lakh to Rs.1 crore. The state maintained that because the fraud was planned so properly and intelligently, segregating "tainted" from "untainted" candidates is a theoretical slogan rather than a workable remedy....