Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog has finally announced the much-awaited results for the post of Junior Office Assistant (JOA) IT Post Code 817, completing a four-year-long recruitment process marked by delays and controversies. A total of 1841 candidates have successfully qualified and have been allotted to a department, bringing relief to thousands of aspirants who were eagerly waiting for the result.
The recruitment process, which began in October 2020, faced numerous hurdles including legal challenges and a major paper leak scandal. The written exam, held on March 21, 2021, attracted over 1,07,878 candidates from more than 200,000 applicants. The exam was aimed at filling 1867 posts including categories like General Unreserved, General EWS, OBC, SC and ST, to name a few.
However, the process was significantly delayed when candidates with postcode 556 obtained an interim order from the Himachal Pradesh High Court in July 2021, staying the writing test scheduled to follow the written exam. The situation was further complicated in December 2022 when a paper leak scandal came to light, involving candidates with postcode 817, leading to a full-scale investigation by the state government.
After a thorough scrutiny and a lengthy investigation, the newly formed state commission received the go-ahead from the state government’s sub-cabinet committee to announce the results. The evaluation of the files of the shortlisted candidates was completed in June 2024, with 5220 candidates participating in this final phase.
Despite this progress, the results process has not been entirely smooth. Thirteen posts reserved for the SC category under the Freedom Fighters Quota remained vacant due to lack of suitable candidates. In addition, five posts of the now-defunct Staff Selection Commission remained vacant. The results of eight candidates involved in the paper leak scandal were withheld and these posts too remained vacant for the time being.
The announcement of the results also had an immediate impact on the candidates who had been protesting outside the State Selection Commission office. A group of candidates had been on hunger strike for 21 days demanding the announcement of the results. The announcement of the results ended their protest.
Expressing relief that the process has finally been completed, Himachal Pradesh State Selection Commission Chairman RK Puruthi said, “The result for the post of Junior Office Assistant in post code 817 has been declared and the sections have been allotted to the 1841 candidates who cleared the exam. We are now focusing on filling the remaining vacancies and resolving the issues related to the withheld results due to the paper leak scandal.”
As the JOA IT 817 recruitment process draws to a close, the focus now is on filling the remaining positions and ensuring transparency and integrity in future exams.
