MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court’s clerk recruitment typing test was hit by technical glitches and administrative issues at examination centres across Maharashtra on Sunday, prompting protests by candidates and a demand for a fresh examination. Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke joined the protest by candidates in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and demanded that the test be conducted afresh.
“The state government is not even able to conduct these court examinations properly. The candidate alleged that some computers were old, keyboards were not functioning and servers were down, preventing candidates from logging in. “When we complained, the court authorities overseeing the examination did not pay heed to our complaints. The aspirants demanded that the examination be conducted afresh. During the protest, they also stopped the vehicle of a judge to inform him about their demands. The situation led to a sit-in protest outside the examination centre, with the aspirants pressing for a fresh test. The students also stopped the vehicle of the district judge and placed their demands before him. Meanwhile, Abhijeet Dipke allegedly spoke to some of the students over a video call and advised them not to give up until their concerns were resolved.
Around 13,000 candidates across Maharashtra were eligible to appear for the typing test, conducted in three sessions for 1,300 posts under the High Court’s Nagpur and Aurangabad benches. Around 2,900 candidates from Marathwada and Vidarbha appeared at various centres in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The alleged disruption occurred during the 10am to 11.15am session. In Thane, around 300 aspirants appearing for the High Court Typing Skill Test staged a protest at the Kalyan APMC Market examination centre after facing technical glitches and other issues.
Because of the malfunctioning in the system, all of them appearing at this centre in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar have failed. Because of the malfunctioning computers and faulty keyboards, after hearing about the problems faced by the first batch, candidates from the second and third batches refused to appear for the examination, saying they feared they would either fail or be marked absent.
The candidates have not failed, the system has failed,” he said. Dipke said the agitation would continue until the authorities gave a written assurance that the test would be conducted again. He also demanded that the district court judge, whom he said was present inside the examination centre, come out, speak to the candidates and provide them with a written assurance about a re-test. A candidate from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar said the typing examination did not begin simultaneously for all candidates. The systems provided to us logged off abruptly, resulting in candidates being declared failed in the typing examination,” the candidate said.
