Hyderabad: In a relief to the Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC), the Supreme Court has ruled that it cannot annul the Group-1 notification, which affects approximately 30,000 candidates.
The court dismissed a petition seeking the cancellation of the Group-1 notification and the postponement of the mains examination.
Exams cancelled twice
Although the previous government issued the Group-1 notification in 2022, the exams were cancelled twice—once due to paper leaks and again because of administrative issues.
After coming to power, the Congress government set aside the old notification and issued a new one, which was challenged as illegal by a group of seven individuals, including Gangula Damodar Reddy.
They approached the High Court but faced disappointment there. Subsequently, they appealed against the High Court’s ruling in the Supreme Court.
On Friday, a two-judge bench comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Manoj Mishra heard their petition.
Petitoners’ arguments
Initially, the petitioners’ lawyer, Guru Krishnakumar, argued that the new government intentionally sidelined the notification issued by the previous administration.
He pointed out that there were 14 incorrect questions in the prelims conducted under the new notification and highlighted changes made to the exam schedule.
He claimed that even the report from a committee appointed by TGPSC regarding errors in questions was flawed.
Therefore, he requested the establishment of an independent expert committee for the prelims and sought a postponement of the mains exams until this committee’s report was received.
He noted that their petition was dismissed without addressing its merits. However, the bench did not agree with these arguments and reminded that there is an ongoing examination of GO 29 in the Telangana High Court.
According to the High Court’s ruling, there will be a recruitment process for Group-1 jobs. The Supreme Court stated that it cannot intervene at this stage, emphasizing that it is not feasible to annul the prelims for just seven candidates who did not qualify for the mains exam.
The petition was therefore dismissed.
Notably, on October 21 of this year, the Supreme Court also clarified that it could not issue interim orders for postponing Group-1 exams, questioning how a stay could be granted while candidates were already at exam centres.
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