On Monday night, as heavy rain lashed Ranchi, scores of people, dressed in formal office uniform, stood waiting outside the Jharkhand Mantralaya.

One of them was Roshan Kumar, 30, speaking to his parents over the phone, crying inconsolably. “Everything is over, mumma,” he told them, repeatedly.

Just hours earlier, Roshan was an Assistant Section Officer (ASO) posted at Nepal House, having joined the government posting this January, after a legal battle over the JSSC-CGL examination.

By Tuesday, he was no longer sure if he had a job.

On Monday evening, following a prolonged agitation by students demanding action over alleged irregularities, the state government cancelled the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission — Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination. The move — though hailed by those protesting alleged irregularities and pushing for exam cancellations — has put the fate of at least 2,000 people like Roshan in peril.

the state government cancelled the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission — Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination.

Originally from Giridih, Kumar, a History graduate, had been preparing for government recruitment examinations since 2019. He cleared several teaching-related examinations, including CTET and Bihar’s STET, but JSSC-CGL was his first major selection.

His father runs a small paan shop while his mother is a para-teacher. His elder brother, who could not continue his studies because of health issues, helps their father at the shop.

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Roshan told that he had prepared largely on his own because his family could not afford coaching. “I am from a poor family. For us, getting a government job was a very big thing,” he said, adding that his ultimate goal was to clear the JPSC examination, which had also been cancelled.

The JSSC-CGL examination had already been a long wait. The recruitment process began with an earlier notification in 2015-16 and went through its own share of cancellations, delays and legal battles.

Protesters celebrate in Ranchi, Monday; they said the agitation would continue until their demand for a CBI probe was fulfilled.

The matter first reached the Jharkhand High Court in 2024, with a petition seeking a proper investigation into allegations of a paper leak in the JSSC-CGL examination, asking that appointments be kept on hold until the probe was completed. The HC ordered status quo on December 17, 2024, and the matter continued for nearly a year. Finally, on December 3, 2025, the HC rejected the demand for a CBI probe, lifted the status quo, and directed JSSC to publish the final result and the government to appoint successful candidates, while asking the SIT to complete its investigation within six months.

The candidates finally received appointment letters in December 2025. Roshan said he had never expected the government to cancel the examination after candidates had already been appointed.

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‘Rule of the mob’

Like Roshan, many others were seen ringing up their parents, some video calling, from outside the Mantralaya, telling them that their jobs had vanished overnight

One of them was Chanda Kumari, 32. A Junior Secretariat Assistant (JSA) posted in the Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance Department in Ranchi, Chanda is originally from Hazaribagh. She cleared the JSSC-CGL examination and the preliminary and mains stages of the Forest Range Officer (FRO) examination. “I was scheduled to appear for the physical test (for the latter), but that process was suspended after the government announced action against examinations conducted by the TDPL testing agency,” she said.

“I have been continuously appearing in examinations: CGL, JPSC or FRO. But now the government has left us with no option,” she said.

The eldest of five siblings, Chanda is worried about her family, which is “heavily dependent” on her. “There is no one else to support them. If the government brings us on the road, my entire family will also meet the same fate,” she said.

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For Chanda, the most painful experience was being stopped from entering the office where she had worked every day. “We used to show our ID cards at the gate, and the police personnel would recognise us and let us enter. They knew us by our faces too. Today, unfortunately, the same people are pushing us away.”

While targeting the protesters at Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium, situated some 11 km away, she said it is a failure of democracy if important decisions are taken under pressure. “We can see democracy changing into mobocracy. People who have not cleared the exams have had their demand fulfilled, and it has impacted us,” she said.

From Monday night to Tuesday evening, many like Roshan and Chanda stayed put outside the Jharkhand Mantralaya. In the background, police officials were heard speaking over microphones: “Move away from the gate and follow the prescribed code of conduct.”

Sudhir Kumar, 30, stood drenched, staring down at the road, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do next. Around 30, an ASO posted in Hazaribagh after clearing the JSSC-CGL examination, he arrived in Ranchi on Tuesday to join the protesting candidates.

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“We have lost everything now. What will the rain do to me?” he told his wife as she asked him why he was not taking shelter.

Originally from Godda, Sudhir completed a diploma in mechanical engineering before completing a B.Tech in the same stream. Coming from a “financially difficult” background, he said he worked for a year in Gurgaon before returning home to pursue government jobs.

“This exam was cleared after several years of uncertainty. In December 2024, I had also cleared a railway recruitment for the post of Depot Material Superintendent (DMS). I went through the selection process, including the medical examination, and even underwent a week of training at Bhusawal in Maharashtra,” he said.

However, when the opportunity to join the Jharkhand government came, he took it up, wanting to remain closer to home and his elderly mother.

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“Everything was finally cleared… everything. We thought the matter was closed,” he said. “But we never knew we would be thrown back into the same situation again.”

Now, with the JSSC-CGL examination cancelled, Sudhir said he cannot simply start preparing again. “I am already 31. Where will it be possible now (to get selected)? The maximum age is around 32. If you become overage, what will you do?” he said.

“We used to enter this office every day… Today, we are standing on the road outside the same office,” said Vikas Kumar Sharma, around 35, as he looked wistfully at the Mantralaya gates, dressed in formal work clothes, a pen tucked in his shirt pocket. He worked as a Junior Secretariat Assistant (JSA).

He said that he is in debt of Rs 5 lakh, much of it taken on for family responsibilities. “I have a lot of debt on me even now, and it eventually increased after I got a job. Still, I was relaxed as I had a government job and I had hopes that one day, I would be debt-free,” he said. “I have three sisters. I took out a loan to marry all of them.”

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Vikas, who supported his family by giving tuitions while completing his graduation, said he spent more than a decade preparing for Jharkhand government jobs, appeared in several recruitment examinations since 2011, failing the physical test for a police sub-inspector by only 44 seconds in 2018.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that the office where we worked in the morning would have us standing outside its gates by evening – not as government employees anymore but as protesters,” he said.