Randeep Surjewala alleges irregularities in assistant professors recruitment exam, demands judicial probe

Chandigarh: Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday claimed that various irregularities have come to light in the assistant professors recruitment exam conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) recently and demanded a judicial probe. "HPSC should be dismissed. There should be a judicial inquiry of the entire process related to question papers of the Assistant Professor examination. The exams should be held again and action should be taken against the guilty officials," Surjewala said at a press conference in Delhi.

There was no immediate reaction from authorities in Haryana to the allegations. Surjewala said earlier this month the HPSC cancelled the written examination for Hindi for the recruitment of assistant professors in the subject in the state's colleges after some issues, including those related to seals on question papers given to candidates, came to light.

"Irregularities, mistakes and faulty question papers have been exposed every day in the recently held HPSC assistant professor recruitment process," the Congress general secretary alleged. He said four years too a scam had surfaced in the recruitment of dental surgeons, in which a deputy secretary of HPSC had been arrested.

Irregularities amid assistant professor exams

Surjewala said for the past seven years, there has been no appointment of assistant professor (College Cadre) in Haryana. In August 2024, HPSC advertised for 2,424 assistant professor posts in 26 subjects and about 1.5 lakh youths applied. "As soon as the assistant professor exam process started in May-June, it came under the cloud of irregularities..." he alleged.

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"...On June 1, the Assistant Professor (Hindi) paper was held by HPSC. The seal of six question papers was found broken and 27 questions in the question paper were wrong," he alleged. "...When there was a lot of uproar, on June 3, HPSC cancelled the Assistant Professor (Hindi) paper. If the seal was not broken and the questions were not wrong, then why was the paper cancelled? This is the biggest proof of the mess," he claimed.

"On May 29, Assistant Professor (Political Science) paper was held in Panchkula and many students taking the exam said that seals of the papers were found broken and they had lodged complaints," said Surjewala.

Copied questions

The Congress' Rajya Sabha MP said the most recent proof of the "mess, confusion and faulty question paper is the Assistant Professor (Geography) paper held on June 8, 2025. In this Assistant Professor (Geography) paper held by HPSC, there are 26 questions which have been copied from the geography paper of Bihar Public Service Commission while six questions are such which have been partially repeated from the paper of Bihar Public Service Commission."

"That is, 32 questions have been taken from the geography paper of Bihar Public Service Commission .... The youth have duly made a written complaint to HPSC in this regard," he said. Surjewala asked if "it a coincidence or an experiment that 32 questions from Bihar Public Service Commission paper have been used in HPSC".

He claimed that if a candidate is to be passed illegally, he only needs to be told to just read the Bihar Public Service Commission paper. The same situation is there in the HPSC paper of Assistant Professor (History), he said.

He demanded the setting up of an expert group to determine responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency in the system of setting question papers by the HPSC. He alleged that the future of Haryana's youth "was being pushed into darkness through such recruitment process".