Can A No-Nonsense Cop Fix Rajasthan’s Broken Recruitment System?

The Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC), known for its lax approach to conducting recruitment exams in the state, has suddenly started appearing agile over the past few weeks.

First of all, the RPSC conducted the Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) Mains Examination on 17–18 June despite students' protest against conducting the exam for the 2024–25 cycle without completing the 2023 recruitment process.

Notably, the interviews for RAS 2023 concluded in May, but the final result is yet to be declared. Nonetheless, the RPSC went ahead with the RAS Mains exam 2024–25 without heeding to student protests.

Demonstrating agility, it even filed a caveat in the Rajasthan High Court, requesting that no interim relief be granted to the students without hearing the commission. The exams were conducted successfully across all centres.

A few days later, another aspirant protest erupted against the RPSC. This time, it was by the aspirants for first-grade teacher or school lecturer positions, as the exam dates coincided with a few UGC NET papers.

Responding differently, the RPSC accepted the aspirants' demand, since it was genuine, and rescheduled the Sanskrit, Sociology and Political Science papers, as they clashed with UGC NET papers.

These recent developments indicate that RPSC has become more dynamic, displaying firmness in conducting exams to avoid delays in the recruitment cycle, while also showing flexibility to accommodate a larger pool of aspirants.

This has been possible after RPSC got a new Chairman on 10 June in the form of Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Utkal Ranjan Sahoo, who was serving as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Rajasthan until then.

This is the first time the RPSC has had a serving DGP as its Chairman. For a long time, only retired IPS or Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers or individuals from academia held this position.

The appointment of a DGP, and a close confidant of the Rajasthan Chief Minister (CM), reflects Bhajan Lal Sharma's intent to prioritise RPSC reforms, an electoral promise that contributed to his government’s victory in 2023.

The RPSC Troubles

For years, the RPSC has earned a bad reputation due to repeated delays, irregularities, skipped recruitment cycles, clubbing of multiple exams, and, most damagingly, paper leaks.

In December 2022, exam papers for second-grade teacher recruitment were leaked, leading to cancellation of the exam and widespread protests. Dozens were arrested in connection with the case.

In May 2023, another exam—for the recruitment of Revenue and Executive Officers (RO/EO)—was hit by a paper leak. The exam was cancelled in 2024, only after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power and several people were arrested.

However, the most significant recruitment scam in recent times is the Sub-Inspector (SI) exam conducted in September 2021, which has not yet been cancelled and continues to be a political issue in the state.

The involvement of an RPSC member, Babu Lal Katara, who was later arrested and currently under suspension, makes the SI exam irregularities particularly serious. Along with him, several officers and trainee SIs were detained.

Beyond paper leaks, the RPSC has lost credibility due to chronic delays, with several years often passing between notification and final appointment. This leads to multiple recruitment cycles being clubbed, causing clashes in promotions.

"Over the last 20 years, a single recruitment cycle of engineering services took five years on average. Currently, the preliminary exam of a 2023 advertisement is set to take place," Bhawnesh Kuldeep, president of the Rajasthan State Engineers' Association, told Swarajya.

Exam paper leaks became a major political issue ahead of the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly elections. Former CM Vasundhara Raje alleged during campaigning that 19 paper leaks occurred during Ashok Gehlot's five-year rule.

The BJP's 2023 manifesto promised structural reforms to tackle paper leaks and proposed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe past cases. After assuming office, the BJP was expected to deliver.

What the BJP Did

Within days of assuming power, CM Bhajan Lal Sharma announced a state-level SIT to investigate all paper-leak cases from the preceding five years. A few days later, Rajasthan got its new DGP.

He was Utkal Ranjan Sahoo, the current Chairman of RPSC. Under his leadership, the SIT registered 94 First Information Reports (FIRs) and arrested 244 individuals within a year.

The arrestees included former and serving RPSC members, intermediaries and the masterminds behind the paper leaks of Junior Engineer recruitment exam and the Police Sub-inspector and Platoon Commander recruitment exam of 2021.

It was only after the SIT's probe that the EO/RO exam 2023 was cancelled. Meanwhile, the Special Operations Group (SOG) also registered 91 FIRs and made multiple arrests in paper leak cases.

Beyond police action, the BJP began focusing on RPSC restructuring. Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani was tasked with studying Public Service Commissions (PSCs) in other states, including Haryana.

The discussions revolve around increasing the strength of the RPSC. It is currently an eight-member body, but one position is vacant and another (Katara) is suspended, leaving only the Chairman and five other active members.

Reportedly, the RPSC could double its strength to 14. Selection of members will also be more merit-based rather than politically influenced, according to an RPSC insider who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Restructuring is essential since some RPSC members have been implicated in paper leak cases. The BJP has also proposed a State Testing Agency (STA), modelled after the National Testing Agency (NTA), for improved exam management.

However, concrete actions are yet to be seen for restructuring. Nonetheless, the police action and the focus on fair conduct ensured that the RPSC conducted 145 exams transparently in 2024.

With most investigations nearing completion, Sahoo's transfer to RPSC from DGP reflects a strategic move. There was little left for him to do as DGP in this context.

Why Sahoo

Utkal Ranjan Sahoo, a 1988-batch IPS officer from Odisha, has served as Superintendent of Police (SP) in several Rajasthan districts. He was Additional Director General (ADG) of Intelligence for four years during Vasundhara Raje’s tenure.

Thereafter, he was promoted as Director General (DG) in December 2020. When Bhajan Lal Sharma became CM in December 2023, then-DGP Umesh Mishra, seen as close to Ashok Gehlot, took voluntary retirement.

Sharma appointed Sahoo as acting DGP, since Sahoo was a trusted officer of his predecessor, Raje. Sahoo’s position was made permanent in February 2024, but he was transferred to RPSC before completing his term of two years.

Notably, Sahoo is the first serving DGP to be appointed as RPSC Chairman. Before him, Bhupendra Singh was a serving DGP to be appointed as the Chairman, but he was on a service extension at that time.

However, for the past 10 months, the RPSC had been led by an officiating Chairman, Kailash Chand Meena, who stepped in after Sanjay Kumar Shrotriya's term ended.

"The appointment comes after a long delay. The position was vacant and there was an acting Chairman, who could not perform with his full potential due to limitations," said Dr Ranjeet Meena, president of the Rajasthan Teachers' Association, to Swarajya.

When Swarajya reached out to Meena, who will continue to serve as a member in the Commission, he declined to comment, citing his busy schedule during ongoing exams.

Nonetheless, it can be understood that an officiating Chairman does not have the powers of a regular Chairman to bring the required reforms in the RPSC. Sahoo’s appointment was both necessary and long awaited.

The Expectations

Expectations are high, driven by the prolonged wait for a regular chairman, persistent structural issues at RPSC, the state government's focus on reforms, and Sahoo’s credible track record.

GuruGyan founder Santosh Bishnoi, who works in the exam prep sector, has numerous expectations. These include completing interviews for the 2019 Food Safety Officers (FSO) cycle and expediting interviews for college lecturers and the 2023 RAS cycle.

"Old recruitments should be concluded as soon as possible. There should be a clear recruitment calendar that is strictly followed. The online application process should be improved to curb dummy candidates," Bishnoi added.

Similarly, the State Engineers’ Association President Kuldeep demands that the vacancies should be floated each year, instead of clubbing the vacancies of multiple years into a single recruitment cycle.

"The latest advertisement is issued for 1,000 vacancies for assistant engineers across four departments. In the PHD (Public Health Department) and PWD (Public Works Department), there are 300 vacancies each, which makes it a very large batch size," Kuldeep said.

"The career progression is very slow in such large batch sizes. In 25 years of service, on average, an assistant engineer gets a promotion only once or twice. This is because the top posts are in a very limited number," he further explained.

Kuldeep also advocates for combining exams for state and subordinate services in engineering to avoid unnecessary delays, reduce seniority clashes, and better utilisation of resources.

Currently, the state engineering services exam is conducted by the RPSC, while the subordinate engineering services exam is conducted by the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSSB), creating a lack of coordination within the engineering departments.

"We expect the RPSC to conduct the exams timely and conclude the recruitment process in a time-bound manner like UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) does. There should be no paper leaks, no paper clashes, and students should not need to protest for every issue," Rajasthan teachers' association president Meena shared his expectations.

The Challenges

Apart from the structural issues within the RPSC and the piling exam issues before the RPSC, the biggest challenge for Sahoo will be to work with a team, of which many officers might not align with his vision of change.

This is because most of them were appointed by the Ashok Gehlot government and given the political interference in the RPSC appointments until now, many of them are not likely to relate themselves to the changes by the BJP government.

"The members were appointed by the previous government. Coordination might be lacking," said Meena, the State Teachers' Association's president.

Notably, while one member, Babu Lal Katara, has been suspended for irregularities in the SI exam 2021, many other RPSC officers are also under suspicion. For instance, there was an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raid on a member, Sangeeta Arya.

Thus, Sahoo will have to work with a team on which he cannot completely rely, until a complete overhaul of the RPSC is done. This will slow down the reform process, and the outcomes will take more time to be visible.

Another challenge is that a lot of recruitment exams are already delayed. They will create a spillover effect, delaying the next recruitment cycles and it will take time to bring all recruitment cycles in line.

There will be pressure to deliver quickly while ensuring no new irregularities. Not to mention the political pressures, as this was one of the key electoral promises of the BJP and hence, the results should be visible before the next elections.

"There is a huge pressure from politicians and institutions. Many RPSC members are still facing blame," Ranjeet Meena said, as politicians like Hanuman Beniwal have been carrying out sit-in protests against RPSC.

Last but not least, re-establishing the image of RPSC as a clean institution after several paper leaks, winning back the trust of aspirants and managing optics around the potential student politics, will also be a challenge.

Can Sahoo Deliver?

As the DGP of Rajasthan, Sahoo has closely monitored the investigation against several paper leaks and might have developed an understanding of how these gangs work in collusion with the RPSC officers.

His first-hand experience gives him an edge in taking decisive steps to prevent future leaks, dismantle the nexus behind such crimes, and enforce accountability among RPSC officials.

While only a few days have passed since he took charge, a few stakeholders have already started seeing positive signs. "The timely conduct of the RAS Main and the first-grade teacher recruitment exams is reassuring," Bishnoi from the coaching industry told Swarajya.

Similarly, the president of the teachers' association, Meena, sees a ray of hope in the way RAS mains exams were conducted. He is also hopeful that the current government won't allow paper leaks.

However, Sahoo, despite being the Chairman, is just an individual and an institution like RPSC needs teamwork for reforms.

If the government wants Sahoo to perform well, it should consider expediting the restructuring of the RPSC to assist him and appointing more motivated members.

Until that happens, Sahoo, despite being the most trusted and capable man, might fail to deliver, leaving RPSC in the same state of dysfunction as it was for several years and its aspirants without an institution that can be trusted.

At the same time, the prestige of CM Sharma and the BJP is at stake and success here is crucial. A reformed RPSC could help them break Rajasthan’s five-year government rotation pattern.