The Group-I recruitment examination seems to be emerging as a jinx for the aspirants, with the exams cancelled once and almost likely to be cancelled yet again due to the High Court’s verdict on some deficiencies in the conduct of the exam, and importantly, there seems to be no possibility of the re-exam in the present government’s term.
Realising this scenario, the State Government is in no mood to take the negativity and plans to approach the Supreme Court to get the High Court’s verdict quashed, presenting its argument that the issues raised by the petitioners did not impact the candidates’ chances but were only procedural issues. There are no ill-intentions as well.
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The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) officials have been asked by the government to study the High Court’s verdict and move the Supreme Court with proper responses. The government’s image has taken a beating with the continuous cancellation of the Group-I, which was held after 8 years of Telangana formation, and this may be a big hurdle to reach out to the youngsters before the elections.
The government fears that if a re-exam is conducted it may not be possible in the next four or five months as the State would be in the election mood. If that happens, the government fears a huge embarrassment to it as the opposition parties are ready to ‘provoke’ the 3.8 lakh aspirants and this multiplies with others also joining in. So, the only option before it is to file a petition in the Supreme Court with the hope that it would stay the High Court orders.
A total of 3,80,202 people applied for the Group-I posts that were notified for the first time in Telangana after it was bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh. The exam was held on October 16, 2022 and the results were declared in January this year. However, after the leakage of question papers came to light the exam was cancelled altogether, embarrassing the government. The TSPSC re-conducted the exam in June this year but yet again some candidates approached the court questioning some procedural issues like the ignorance of biometrics of the candidates appearing for the test.
TSPSC defends
Caught in the controversy again, the TSPSC officials say they are being blamed by certian groups for being transparent in the entire procedure. Rejecting the allegations by the petitioners the TSPSC argues that there was no addition of scripts and it was impossible as well.
The officials say the attendance figures released on the day of the examination (June 11) were taken over the phone from the district Collectors to prepare a consolidated statement to be released to the media as a measure of transparency and also in the interests of the candidates who would be curious. The number released was 2,33,248.
Later during the scanning process, OMR scripts were verified and tallied with the attendance and the exact attendance figure is confirmed as 2,33,506. Since lakhs of candidates appeared in hundreds of centres spread across several districts, there will always be a likelihood of minor discrepancies or variation between the initial figures obtained on the day of exam and the final figures confirmed after scanning is the TSPSC argument.
This minor discrepancy is being used to question the TSPSC’s commitment on transparency, an official said, wishing anonymity. “As alleged there is no scope of adding scripts after exam and there cannot be any misapprehension on this account.”
On the court finding fault with dispensing with the biometric screening of candidates as was done in the case of Group-II examination, officials claim that the identity of the candidates was examined meticulously and there was no scope for impersonation. Time factor was one of the reasons why the TSPSC did not seek biometrics.
