In a unprecedented development, Manipur High Court passed an order indefinitely postponing the prelims of the  Manipur Civil Services Combined Competitive (MCSCC) Examination, 2019 earlier scheduled to be held from 12th May.

Following the Court order, a group of  aspirants who have travelled to the state for the prelims from outside Manipur have demanded their travel expenses compensated.

Apparently the Court ordered the postponement following a series of PIL by aspirants that exposed the MPSC of not abiding by the court order that  directed  the MPSC to  revised and  frame a flawless rules and regulations in order to avoid frequent errors in conducting the highest comparative exams of the state.

This order was passed by a bench of Manipur High Court led by justice Kotiswar on 2nd February, 2017.

Contrary to the direction, the commission ignored the order and instead scheduled the prelims.

“It is a fact that MPSC has a nag of committing errors while conducting the MCSCC examination intentional or  not. For example take the 2016 exams, plagued with marks tampering. This case is pending against the MPSC with the honorable High Court,” said Arvind Salam,  another aspirant.  

Another instance of error by the MPSC is the 2016, Manipur Civil Services Combined Competitive (preliminary) examination,(MCSCC)  which was cancelled as the MPSC notification did not specifically mention that a candidate must  know Manipuri or at least one recognized dialect of the state, which led to the local students protesting.

Another case was the cancellation of exams after  complains  of wrong questions and ambiguous instructions in the examination surfaced. 
Considering the errors, the Court ordered the Commission to frame a fool-proof R&R 

“During the course of three writ petitions filed against the Commission it was revealed that the secretary of the commission also held the charge of the controller of examination. The writs also requested the court to They also filed on the ground of not review the evaluation norms, ” Salam added. 
Responding to writs, Justice, Lamsungkum Jamir of Manipur High Court ordered the prelims to be postponed indefinitely.

Soon after the court order and PIL was filed with High Court demanding travel expenses compensation by a group if aspirants who have travelled from outside the state for the postponed prelims. 

Ratanamani  Sougrakpam, one of the aspirant,  said “postponing the prelims at the last minute is a wastage of money and time” especially for those aspirants like him who have travel from out of the state for the exams. “Considering frequency of the glitches  the MPSC commits,  the victimised aspirants are filing a PIL  demanding travel compensation,” he added.