Supreme Court upholds Rajasthan HC order cancelling SI Recruitment 2021, dismisses all SLPs without notice

Jaipur: The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld the Rajasthan High Court’s order cancelling the entire Sub-Inspector (SI) Recruitment 2021 of the Rajasthan Police, dismissing all the special leave petitions (SLPs) filed against the order at the preliminary stage itself without issuing notice to the respondents.

The High Court’s division bench, by an order dated April 4, 2026, had quashed the recruitment process on account of large-scale paper leak and irregularities, and directed that a fresh examination be conducted. Petitions filed by Payal Sharma and others against this order, as well as appeals filed by the Chairman of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) and others, have all been rejected by the apex court.

Senior advocates Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi and P.S. Patwalia, among others, appeared for the petitioners and made detailed arguments seeking interference with the High Court’s findings. Advocates Harendra Neel and Jaideep Gupta appeared for the unsuccessful candidates and supported the High Court order. The bench declined to issue notice and dismissed the petitions.

The Supreme Court took serious note of the alleged compromise of the recruitment process, observing that a member of the RPSC had been arrested in connection with the paper leak and his bail had also been cancelled, which it described as an indication of institutional-level wrongdoing. The court observed that ordinarily the legal solution in such cases is to segregate the “tainted” from the “untainted” candidates, but said this was not possible in the present case, rendering the entire process unreliable. The bench also referred to an earlier ruling in which an entire MBBS examination held nationwide had been cancelled after only 44 candidates were found to be tainted.

The petitioners had argued that the leak was not on a large scale and that only about 6.3 per cent of candidates were under suspicion, who could have been segregated, and that more than 838 candidates had already been appointed and were serving for nearly two years. The Supreme Court did not accept these submissions and refused to interfere with the conclusions of the High Court.

The bench, however, granted limited relief by allowing candidates currently working in the central government or in public sector undertakings to approach the Rajasthan High Court with review petitions, so that they may seek the same relief that has been extended to state government employees.

With the dismissal of the SLPs without notice, the Rajasthan High Court’s decision will stand effectively confirmed, paving the way for the RPSC to initiate a fresh recruitment process for the post of Sub-Inspector.