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Ravindra Singh
Citizen-nominee for RTI Awards 2009 2009
Reference Number: C770
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Organization: Pratiyogi Sangharsh Morcha (unregistered association)
Nominated by: self
Why is he short-listed for RTI Awards 2009?
For his effort to use and encourage others to use RTI Act to expose illegalities committed by Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC) in selecting candidates for state civil services through exams conducted in 2003, 2005, and 2008.
CGPC, a body formed under Article 315 of the Constitution, manipulated the entire process of assessment of the candidates, found Singh and others through hundreds of RTI applications that they have filed at CGPSC.
Some examinees were awarded more marks than maximum marks assigned to a question paper and different sets of maximum marks were used for different examinees in the same paper. A private investigation found that the process of conducting interviews was being fixed in favour of candidates who paid bribes.
Singh also filed two writ petitions at Chhattisgarh High Court in the matter of examinations conducted by CGPSC in the years 2003 and 2008.
He has coordinated the fight against corruption at CGPSC, which has resulted in dismissal or suspension of several top officials of CGPSC and replacement of almost all other members of the staff.
The fight has also led to enquiries into the affairs of CGPSC and its officials, conducted by anti-corruption branch (ACB) and economic offences wing (EOW) of the police and a two-day special discussion over the scandal in the state assembly.
As the scandal broke out in 2006, CGPSC became arguably the most discredited Constitutional body in Chhattisgarh; several demands have been made for its dissolution. CGPSC’s corrupt ways have also cast doubts on the integrity of other public service commissions, including Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), as all of these bodies follow similar practices in assessing and selecting candidates for public services.

Details of the nomination

Ravindra Singh, a resident of Rajnandgaon, is one of the 1.5 lakh candidates who appeared in the preliminary exam, conducted in December 2003 by Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC), for recruitment into 147 posts of state civil services.
It was the first state civil services exam since the formation of Chhattisgarh state in November 2000.
Lakhs of young people like Ravindra Singh had waited eagerly for over three years for the government to start the process of assessing and selecting candidates for state civil services.
State civil services include posts like Deputy Collector, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Accounts Officer, and Excise Sub-inspector; they are generally regarded as the most prestigious administrative services for a person to be employed in after top central civil services.
Every state has a public service commission, under a Constitutional provision, to conduct exams for assessing and recruiting candidates into these services.
In assessing candidates, all state-level public service commissions, as also the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), follow the pattern of an objective-type screening test, also known as preliminary exam, a conventional main examination, and a personal interview. The entire process may last more than a year or even two years.
Civil services exams are considered one of the most competitive and rigorous exams in India.
The preliminary exam conducted by CGPSC in December 2003 screened in 1988 candidates for the mains exam, which was held in July 2004. The results of the main exam were announced in February 2005. Personal interviews were conducted in the middle of June 2005.
The list of candidates found suitable to be recruited into civil services came out in August 2005, more than three months after the interviews, an inordinately long time. Usually this period is not more than a week.
As results were announced, there was an unusually large number of candidates who found it difficult to believe that they had not been selected.
There was also a perception that most of the successful candidates belonged to influential families.
As if to reinforce suspicions of wrongdoing, CGPSC did not publish the marks obtained by candidates until a students’ agitation in late 2005 forced them to do so. Finally, the marks were disclosed in early 2006. That is when several candidates became convinced that there had been irregularities in the conduct of examinations.
Varsha Dongre, a candidate from Scheduled Caste category, for example, found on CGPSC website that a candidate from the same category, who secured only 1276 marks, as compared to her 1290.41 marks, had been selected for a position of excise sub-inspector. Dongre had not been selected for any position.
Fortunately, for the aggrieved candidates, the RTI Act 2005 had come into force by then.
Ravindra Singh was one of the early users of RTI Act in Chhattisgarh. In December 2005, he demanded the break-up of his marks from CGPSC. He then encouraged more candidates to file RTI applications.
Each of those RTI requests faced evasion, lies and other known methods of stonewalling. Most of them were answered only on directions of State Information Commission (SIC).
For example, CGPSC took over 10 months to provide complete information to Ravindra Singh in response to an RTI application that he filed in December 2005.
As more people began to assert their right to information, CGPC was compelled to disclose marks and other data about the exams, which showed that the entire process of assessment had been corrupted.
In the garb of “scaling”, which is a statistical technique used by public service commissions to bring parity in various subjects opted by examinees, CGPSC wreaked havoc with merit.
For example, in second question paper of History, CGPSC “scaled” up 158 marks obtained by one Chaman Singh, to 205 and “scaled” down 188 marks obtained by Ravindra Singh, our nominee, to 150.64.
While many other candidates became the victims of CGPSC’s sham scaling, some candidates were given more marks than maximum marks assigned to a paper.
CGPSC also cheated the examinees in marking their answer sheets and adding their marks. One Kuleshwar Chaure got zero for his answer, which was marked “correct”, to a question in physics question paper. Another examinee got 10 marks for an answer in General Studies paper, but only 8 marks from the same answer were reflected in the total.
While Varsha Dongre, an SC candidate, secured 1290.41 marks and failed to get any posting, six other SC candidates were made Excise Sub-inspectors, Assistant public relations officer, and Naib Tehseeldar despite getting lesser marks.
CGPSC was also found to have tampered with the Dongre’s application form, striking out Excise sub-inspector post from her priority list. That was revealed after Dongre used RTI to get a copy of her original application form to counter CGPSC’s defence that she had herself struck out the post.
It was on Dongre’s complaint that Anti-corruption Branch (ACB) of Chhattisgarh police started an investigation into the criminal misconduct of CGPSC.
CGPSC even altered maximum marks assigned to same questions attempted by various examinees, according to who they want to favour or disfavour. So one examinee would be assessed against maximum marks of 75, another against 50, even though the prescribed maximum marks would be 60.
CGPSC also made a mockery of rules for reservation for SC, ST, OBC, and other categories.
As CGPSC’s criminal deeds hit the front-page headlines in Chhattisgarh, aggrieved candidates joined forces to fight for justice and called themselves Pratiyogi Sangharsh Morcha, which is being coordinated by Ravindra Singh.
By February 2006, Chhatisgarh government had already sacked several officials of CGPSC, including Secretary and Examination Controller. In a special meeting of the cabinet, the state government also decided to recommend to the President the removal of Ashok Darbari as the chairman of CGPSC. (Darbari is a former DGP.)
Later, the police registered an FIR against Khelanram Jangde, who had replaced Darbari as acting chairman of CGPSC, and Amol Singh Salam, member, for offering to manipulate the interview process in favour of candidates willing to pay bribes.
While Jangde is currently on bail, Salam is absconding.
In 2006, Ravindra Singh and his associate Chaman Singh collected enough evidence of illegalities committed in 2003 exam through RTI to file a writ petition at Chhattisgarh High Court. The judgement in this case is pending.
Ravindra Singh’s struggle has gone beyond irregularities in 2003 state civil services exam, mainly because CGPSC’s bungling and misdeeds have continued to haunt examinees in 2005 and 2008 exams.
He filed another writ petition at Chhattisgarh High Court to obtain relief for CGPSC’s misuse of rules of reservation in the case of 2008 preliminary exams.
The following is a summary of the impact of Ravindra Singh’s struggle.

  1. All 147 candidates selected through 2003 exam have been issued notices by HC. Some people may lose their jobs to be replaced by new candidates; others may be demoted or promoted.
  2. Entire staff of CGPSC has been replaced. Criminal cases initiated against some officials.
  3. State Assembly convened specially to conduct a 2-day discussion on CGPSC scandal. A special state cabinet meeting recommended to the President removal of and action against Ashok Darbari, then chairman of CGPSC.
  4. Enquiries by ACB, EWS, and a high-level committee set up by Chhattisgarh government.
  5. After the expose of illegalities committed by its in the garb of “scaling system”, CGPSC became the first public service commission in the country to abolish scaling in preliminary exam, which also means that the exam on an optional subject has also been done away with. It also became the first PSC to replace conventional mains exam with an objective-type one.
  6. CGPSC sought permission of HC to revise the entire merit list of 2003 exam, which will mean that some people will be removed from their jobs to be replaced by new candidates. Others will get higher or lower ranks.
Scaling system and other assessment practices of all public service commissions, including UPSC, have come under cloud. Ravindra Singh is convinced that if these assessment practices were to be made public, all PSCs would have a lot to answer for.