The Bihar Public Service Commission has sent a legal notice to Jan Suraaj party founder Prashant Kishor for levelling “false, nasty and defamatory allegations” against the government body amid the protests by civil services aspirants, reported The Indian Express on Sunday.

Civil services aspirants in Bihar who appeared for the 70th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination on December 13 have been protesting in Patna since December 18, alleging a question paper leak at one of the centres.

They have also alleged that CCTV cameras and jammers were not functioning at several examination centres and that question papers were distributed late at some.

Kishor has been on an indefinite hunger strike since January 2 to press for the cancellation of the preliminary examination.

In interviews, he had alleged that the commission sold the civil services seats for Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore and that is why did not want to conduct a re-examination, reported The Hindu.

“You have levelled false, nasty, baseless and defamatory allegations in respect of my client [BPSC] with regards to its conduct and integrity without any basis, in particular about the irregularities, corruption, malpractice and selling of seats through various modes in respected of integrated 70th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination conducted by my client,” read the notice sent to Kishor on January 10, according to The Indian Express.

It added that the “irresponsible act” had caused “prejudice” against the commission and affected its reputation.

If Kishor does not provide proof to back his claims within seven days, he will face legal action, the commission has warned the Jan Suraaj party founder.

Apart from Kishor, Patna-based educator Guru Rahman has also received a notice from the commission for “spreading rumours on normalisation”.

Normalisation is a statistical process that adjusts scores for exams held in multiple shifts. It is used when exams are held over multiple days or when different question papers are required for each shift.

Rahman has been asked to issue a public apology or face legal action.

“There is no question of apologising to BPSC even if it means going to jail,” he told The Indian Express. “I stood for students’ cause and would continue to do so.”

The commission has also served a legal notice to YouTuber Faizal Khan, popularly known as Khan Sir, according to India Today.

The notice accused Khan of spreading misinformation about the normalisation process and said that his statements led to protests by the aspirants. He has been asked to provide proof of his claims within 15 days.

Rahman and Khan had joined the protests against the normalisation of marks before the preliminary exam was held. The commission had later clarified that it does not have any plans to implement the process.

Bihar Public Service Commission Chairman Parmar Ravi Manubhai has denied any question paper leaks and stated that the preliminary examination was conducted peacefully at 911 out of 912 centres. So far, the commission has agreed to reschedule the exam only for candidates who appeared at a centre in Patna, where an exam official died of a heart attack.

Also read: Could paper leak allegations prove to be Prashant Kishor’s launchpad into Bihari politics?