TGPSC strongly defends Group-1 examination fairness in Telangana HC on judicial probe plea

Hyderabad: Telangana State Public Service Commission (TGPSC) strongly defended the transparency and fairness of the Group-1 examination process during a hearing on judicial probe plea in the High Court.

On Thursday, the Telangana High Court continued hearing a batch of six writ petitions seeking a judicial probe into the conduct of the Telangana Group-1 examinations.

Nearly 4 lakh candidates appeared

Senior Counsel S Niranjan Reddy, appearing for the TGPSC, informed the court that around 4 lakh candidates appeared for the preliminary examination, out of which 30,000 were shortlisted for the mains, and 20,161 candidates were finally selected.

He pointed out that while unsuccessful candidates approached the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the exams, the Apex Court refused to cancel them, observing that the allegations lacked merit and appeared malafide.

No evidence of irregularities

Niranjan Reddy argued that there was no violation of statutory rules or evidence of malpractice in conducting the examinations. He emphasised that there were no credible allegations of systematic leaks, the examination centres were not compromised, and petitioners did not question the integrity of TGPSC or allege any selective valuation.

He also asserted that without material evidence to substantiate these claims, the petitions could not be entertained.

Majority selected from marginalised sections

Highlighting the social composition of the selected candidates, the Senior Counsel submitted that most of them belonged to OBC, SC, ST, women, and physically handicapped categories, proving that the results were not elitist.

He cautioned that cancelling the selection would destroy the dreams of genuine candidates, who cleared the exam through sheer hard work in a transparent process.

Detailed evaluation process explained

Explaining the evaluation mechanism, Mr. Niranjan Reddy said 300 evaluators were engaged. Before evaluating, they underwent mock answer paper evaluation and orientation programmes. Each script was corrected by an evaluator and further checked by a scrutiniser to verify the marks allotted.

Randomisation ensured no manipulation

Refuting allegations that some candidates were deliberately allocated to specific centres to favour them, he clarified that allocation was done through computer-based randomisation, eliminating any human interference. All 46 centres were physically inspected to rule out malpractice.

Women candidates allocation justified

Addressing concerns about only women being allocated to centres 18 and 19, he explained that these were women’s colleges in Koti, and the TGPSC ensured all 933 women candidates were accommodated there.

This decision was taken to avoid inconvenience to male candidates, as experienced in earlier UPSC exams, where men faced long restroom queues, losing precious exam time.

Further hearing on Friday

The matter has been adjourned for further arguments by Senior Counsel Desai Prakash Reddy, who represents the selected candidates, along with Senior Counsel Laxmi Narasimha and other advocates.