The Bhajan Lal Sharma government’s decision to send sub-inspectors selected under the 2021 Sub-Inspector (SI) recruitment process, marred by the leakage of question papers, for field training was challenged in the Rajasthan High Court on Friday.

Challenging the Rajasthan government’s decision, the petitioner maintained that the High Court, hearing an earlier petition, had ordered status quo to be maintained in the matter pertaining to the 2021 SI recruitment process. On December 26, the High Court ordered the recruitment process of 850 officers to be halted.

The Rajasthan High Court is slated to hear the matter on January 6.

The SI written exam scam took centre stage in the run-up to the Rajasthan Assembly elections in 2023, with BJP national president JP Nadda promising to appoint a Special Investigation Team for the party’s manifesto.

More than 40 trainee SIs, accused of benefitting from the paper leak, were arrested by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police last year. Despite a long-standing demand to cancel the 2021 SI recruitment process, the Bhajan Lal government has decided against it so far.

On October, 2024, the Bhajan Lal government formed a six-member ministerial committee to decide whether to cancel the recruitment process, conducted during the then-Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government’s regime, after consulting members from the SOG.

On March, 2024, the SOG arrested 15 under-training SIs, including the topper, for getting hold of leaked question papers or using dummies to sit for the test on their behalf.

The paper was found to be leaked from a private school in Jaipur, with the SOG arresting the centre superintendent for colluding with the gang responsible for leaking and distributing the leaked papers.