The Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) issued show cause notices to 55 candidates of the JE (Civil) Main Examination, asking them to explain why they should not be barred for a lifetime from recruitment. The notices come a day after several persons were arrested in the state's Balasore district in connection with leaking the JE (Civil) Main exam question paper.

Taking to Twitter, OSSC Chairperson Abhay said, "In pursuance of a report from SP, Balasore, OSSC has yesterday (on 28.07.2023) issued show cause notice to 55 candidates as to why they shall not be barred for lifetime from recruitment of OSSC." He also informed that efforts were on to link the remaining 37 candidates with their application in coordination with Balasore police, as mentioned in a report by PTI.

"OSSC is committed to taking exemplary action against all candidates who are involved in unfair practice, including question leak," Abhay said. The OSSC action came following Balasore SP Sagarika Nath recommending the recruitment panel to debar certain candidates, who during the investigation, were found to have come in contact with the racket that leaked the question paper for the examination, held on July 16.

On July 23, OSSC cancelled the JE (Civil) written exam, after Nath confirmed that its question paper was leaked. The commission has rescheduled the examination to September 3.

At a press conference, the Balasore police said that the question papers were leaked from the printing press located outside the state, where OSSC had given them for printing. So far, 17 persons have been arrested in connection with the case. The mastermind is a Bihar government employee. Other arrested persons hail from Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

Two of the accused persons were teachers serving under the Odisha government. Nath has also recommended action against the two, as per PTI.