Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) has issued a fresh notification for Group-I services after cancelling notification issued in April 26, 2022.
The new notification was issued on Monday with the increased number of 563 posts after the Supreme Court allowed the TSPSC to withdraw the Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the High Court’s decision to cancel the preliminary examination conducted on June 11, 2023.
As per the new notification applications can be submitted online from February 23 to March 14. The option will close at 5 p.m. on March 14. However, the applications can be edited from March 23 10 a.m. to March 27 5 p.m. The preliminary test (Objective Type) will be held in May/June 2024 while the Main Examination for the qualified will be held in conventional type in September/October this year. Hall tickets can be downloaded one week before the exam.
Cancellation
The cancellation of notification comes after the exam was caught in legal issues; once for paper leakage and the second exam for not following the norms in the conduct of the exam. Both the exams were conducted during the previous regime.
The preliminary examination of Group I was held, for the first time after the formation of Telangana, on October 16 in 2022. However, the paper was leaked leading to a huge uproar and later several people were arrested in the case. The kingpin of the paper leakage was found in the TSPSC itself.
The exam was cancelled and conducted again on June 11, 2023, for a second time. About 2.33 lakh aspirants appeared for the examination for the second time. However, some of them moved the High Court after the exam stating that there were some procedural errors like the biometrics of the candidates were not recorded. The High Court asked the TSPSC to conduct the examination again given the deficiencies while passing strictures against the system.
Then the TSPSC during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) regime filed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the High Court’s decision to cancel the Group-1 preliminary examination which was conducted for the second time.
New TSPSC constituted
Meanwhile, the government changed with Congress Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who decided to ‘clean up’ the TSPSC, asked all the members and the Chairman to resign. A new TSPSC was constituted recently with former DGP M. Mahender Reddy appointed as the Chairman.
The new TSPSC team had recently filed a petition in the Supreme Court to allow it to withdraw the SLP. The decision was seen in line with the government’s view that it preferred to conduct the Group-I afresh. Meanwhile, the government has decided to add 60 new posts for Group-I services and a G.O. was also issued.
Now, with the cancellation of the Group-I notification of 2022, it is clear that the aspirants have to go through the grind again. The only solace for them is the additional 60 posts to the 503 posts announced in the notification issued in 2022.
