Candidates who were initially declared “qualified” for the interview round of the 2018 batch of the Group-I services conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), but found their names missing in the selection list after the re-evaluation of the answer sheets done manually, met Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan here on Friday, seeking his intervention to ensure justice to them.
In a representation submitted to Mr. Harichandan, the representatives of the 202 candidates who gathered outside Raj Bhavan, said they were declared as qualified in the results declared by the commission on April 28, 2021, based on the digital evaluation of their answer sheets.
Following allegations of discrepancies, leading to a litigation and the consequent court directive, the answer sheets were re-evaluated manually, and the results were declared on May 26 this year, but the merit list did not have the names of 202 out of the 325 candidates earlier selected, they said.
They further said the court did not invalidate the digital evaluation, but only questioned the procedural lapses that occurred.
Contrary to the court directive that revaluation be completed in three months, the commission had started the process after five months and “carried it out in a hurried manner,” ignoring the merit factor and to benefit a few candidates, they alleged.
The aggrieved candidates said even the phone numbers of the evaluators were available in public domain in March, when the evaluation process started.
They said there was 62% change in the merit list, and the names of 80% of the candidates who had written the examination in Telugu had been removed, and attributed this to “mala fide and vested interests.”
Calling the vast gap between the number of candidates selected in the “digital” and “manual” evaluation “irrational,” they urged the Governor to intervene and ensure justice to them.
