Kolkata, Feb 23 (IANS): The Calcutta High Court on Thursday expressed anguish over the 1,00,000 missing answer sheets of examinations for the recruitment in the West Bengal Panchayat Affairs & Rural Development Department.

In 2018, the department issued notification for recruitment for 167 vacancies in Murshidabad district. Around 1,00,000 candidates appeared for the examinations conducted in the same year. However, even after waiting for three years when the results were not declared, a section of the candidates filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court.

While the matter came up for hearing at the Calcutta High Court's division bench headed by Justice Arijit Banerjee, the counsel for the state government informed that all the 1,00,000 answer sheets of the said written examination had gone missing.

The bench lambasted the state government, saying, "You cannot escape by simply claiming that the answer sheets are missing. If the hard copies are missing, then arrange the soft copies of those from the agency entrusted for conducting the examinations," Justice Banerjee observed.

He also directed the state panchayat affairs & rural development department secretary to file an affidavit within four weeks on how the answer sheets went missing.

"We suspect that there had been major irregularities in the recruitment process like that of teachers' recruitment. But we will have to wait for the reply from the state government on this count and on the basis of the reply, our counsel will decide over the next courses of legal steps and arguments," said a petitioner.