HC dismisses appeals clearing final hurdle for Group-I Main exams

Telangana High Court clears legal hurdle for Group-I main exams, dismissing petitions against test order, ensuring fairness.

The legal hurdle to conduct Group-I main examinations from October 21 was cleared on Friday (October 18, 2024) with the Telangana High Court dismissing two petitions appealing against the order of a single judge who declined to cancel Group-I test. 

A Bench of Justices Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Laxmi Narayana Alishetty, pronouncing its verdict, noted that the future of nearly 32,000 candidates appearing for the Main exams cannot be put at stake for the sake of six petitioners.

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A preliminary test to select candidates for Group-I cadre officers was conducted by the TGPSC in 2023 having issued a notification for the same the previous year. The exam was cancelled following allegations of leakage of the question paper of the preliminary examination. The test was conducted again this year afresh by adding additional number of posts to be filled up.

Two writ petitions were filed seeking cancellation of the preliminary test on different grounds, including mistakes in answers to some questions and enhanced reservations for scheduled tribe candidates. A single Judge dismissed the two writ petitions following which two appeals were filed.

Dismissing the appeals, the Division Bench observed that the Group-I main exams were just two days away and more than 90% of the candidates had downloaded hall tickets for the same. “Postponing the exams at this stage would disable the administration convening the test and this would cause a lot of prejudice to several thousands of candidates,” the Bench said. It stated that two of the six petitioners, who filed the appeals, were already selected for the Main test. 

Hence, “stalling the examination process for the sake of some petitioners is not correct,” the Bench said. Recalling earlier cancellation of the preliminary test, the Bench noted that first time it was cancelled due to leakage of the question paper. Second time, the preliminary test was cancelled after some candidates moved the High Court citing lacunae like examiners not adhering to the system of biometrics and other grounds.