High Court directs TSPSC to reconduct exams
PNS|Hyderabad
The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) Group-I preliminary examination has been cancelled once again. The High Court has directed the TSPSC on Saturday to cancel the Group-I prelims examination and conduct the examination once again.
The High Court has stated that the main reason for the cancellation of Group-I examination for not taking bio-metric attendance.
The High Court has made it clear that the TSPSC has to follow the rules given in the Group-I notification. The Court opined that the TSPSC did not conduct the examination as per the guidelines given in notification in the Group-I prelims examination conducted on June 11th. The Court directed the TSPSC to conduct the Group-I examination once again following all rules. The Court asked the TSPSC to follow the guidelines including bio-metric attendance given in notification.
The Court commented that the TSPSC failed in collecting the data of the candidates properly. The Court slammed that the TSPSC behaved in a negligent manner even while knowing the fact that the Group-I examination is very important to the candidates. The Court expressed its intolerance on a counter submitted by the TSPSC. The Court slammed that the TSPSC showed wrong figures about the candidates who attended the preliminary examination. The TSPSC webnote given on June 28th stated that 2,33,506 candidates attended the examination, however, the TSPSC mentioned in its Counter submitted to the state that 2,33,248 candidates attended the examination.
Three candidates, who appeared in the Group-I preliminary examination, approached the High Court in June alleging that the TSPSC gave OMR Sheet without hall ticket number and photo and did not take biometric attendance. The applicants appealed to the Court to direct the TSPSC to conduct the examination once again.
It may be recalled that the TSPSC conducted examinations in 994 centers and 3,80,081 candidates applied for the examination, however, 2,33,248 candidates appeared for the examination with 61.37 percent attendance.
It may also be recalled that the TSPSC cancelled the Group-I prelims for the first time due to leakage allegations.
However, the TSPSC is contemplating to challenge the High Court single bench verdict. The TSPSC lawyers appealed to the High Court to give the order copy immediately. The TSPSC may appeal on Monday.
Govt’s incompetence : Kishan
Union Tourism Minister BJP State President G. Kishan Reddy said that it is extremely unfortunate that a complete lack of governance and a total indifference to the plight of the unemployed by the BRS Government led to the cancellation of the Group-1
preliminary examination a second time. Around four lakh candidates had registered for the Group-1 preliminary initially and their hopes have been dashed once again, he said.In a statement issued on Saturday, Kishan said that Telangana was formed promising Neellu (water), Nidhulu (funds) and Niyamakalu (jobs) and the failure of the BRS government on all these three fronts has led to the complete destruction of the hope that existed at the time of the state’s formation. The abject failure of the BRS government is especially evident in the case of jobs (Niyamakalu), he added.
Kishan said one would have expected the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) would be more careful in conducting the Group-1 examination after the initial paper leak in October 2022. However, the TSPSC is in total denial as the initial paper leak continued due to its incompetence and as it ended the collection of biometric details during the re-examination scheduled for June 2023 despite its recruitment notification clearly stating that bio details would be collected as a precautionary measure to prevent impersonation and other malpractices.
The Union Minister said that the High Court therefore had no option but to cancel the examination when several petitioners sought cancellation of the exam as there were many lacunae in conducting the exam like hall tickets not having photographs of the candidate and as candidates were not subjected to biometric screening which gives scope for impersonation.
A government that cannot secure the future of youth has no right to remain in power, Kishan said.
Hard blow to govt: Revanth
TPCC President Revanth Reddy said that the High Court order to hold the Group-1 (Preliminary) examination again is a hard blow to the KCR government. This is the result of the destruction of institutions under KCR’s rule, he said. Revanth sent an open letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao regarding proceedings after the cancellation of the Group-1 (Preliminary) examination.
In his letter, Revanth criticised KCR saying that his unjust rule will be punished by students and the unemployed. From the beginning of the Telangana movement,
students and youth from Osmania University and Kakatiya University stood by it and kept the need for a Telangana State alive. Youth and students played a vital role in the Telangana movement from the 1952 Mulki and Non-Mulki movement, from the first phase of the movement in 1969 to the third phase in 2014, he said.
He said that he expected that KCR would correct the mistakes based on past experience and hold the exam efficiently this time but KCR exposed his shallowness in conducting the exam and his ill intentions.
It is the government’s minimum responsibility to set up a biometric system and to provide OMR sheets with hall ticket numbers. But this “honourable” regime did not record biometrics and OMR sheets were given without hall ticket numbers, he said.
He said the HC order to re-conduct the Group-1 preliminary examination is a severe blow to KCR. This HC verdict has proved that the KCR government has failed to conduct the Group-1 exam again. This situation would not have arisen if strong action had been taken when the TSPSC question paper leak came to light. At that time KCR cancelled exams and punished students even though the mistake was made by someone else. Telangana’s unemployed have lost confidence in the TSPSC, Revanth said.
In this context, the Congress hopes to provide assurance to Telangana’s unemployed. The youth of Telangana need not despair. A Congress government will come in three months and everything will be set right, he said.
Revanth said that only if the KCR government is dissolved can the filling of vacant posts be done transparently. If there has to be fair recruitment in Telangana, the only way is to remove the KCR government and bring the Congress to power, he added.
