Telangana HC upholds single judge’s order cancelling Group-1 prelims

Hyderabad: In a setback to the Telangana government, the state High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the single judge’s order cancelling Group-1 prelims examination conducted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) on June 11 this year.

The division bench of Justices Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Anil Kumar Jukanti upheld the single judge’s order, directing TSPSC to conduct the exam again.

The TSPSC had filed the petition challenging the September 23 order of Justice P Madhavi Devi cancelling the exam.

The division bench pulled up TSPSC for not taking due precautions despite the fact that the first exam was cancelled due to question paper leak. The court expressed disappointment over the manner in which the exam was conducted.

The court asked the TSPSC why it failed to implement biometric system despite announcing the same through notification. The bench asked why the TSPSC violated its notification.

Observing that after a long wait of lakhs of unemployed had written the exam, the court remarked their hopes were dashed by the manner in which the exam was conducted. It pulled up TSPSC for playing with the lives of the unemployed

Earlier, the single judge had cancelled the exam. The court passed the orders on the petitions filed by some candidates alleging gross violations in the conduct of the examination. They complained that biometric attendance was not implemented and OMR sheets did not carry hall ticket numbers and photographs of the candidates.

Over 2.32 lakh government job aspirants had appeared for the exam conducted on June 11 for recruitment to 503 Group-1 posts.

This was the second time that the exam was cancelled. Earlier, the exam was held on October 16, 2022. Nearly 2.86 lakh candidates had appeared in the exam. However, TSPSC cancelled the exam in March due to question paper leakage that had rocked the Commission.

The TSPSC had to cancel several other recruitment exams due to the scam allegedly involving some of its own employees.