The Telangana High Court recently announced a further extension of its interim order, originally issued on September 24, which suspends a single judge’s directive for the re-evaluation of Group-I main exam answer scripts. This crucial decision means the matter will now be revisited on November 18.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin, granted this extension while reviewing the appeal petitions submitted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TGPSC). The bench also instructed legal representatives for the ‘unsuccessful candidates’ – those who challenged the initial results – to submit their counter affidavits by the upcoming November deadline.
These unsuccessful candidates had initially approached the court with writ petitions, seeking the cancellation of the Group-I main exam. Their arguments primarily revolved around alleged irregularities, such as a disproportionately high number of selected candidates from specific centers and inconsistencies in hall ticket numbers between the preliminary and main examinations issued by the TGPSC. The single judge, upon reviewing these petitions, had previously nullified both the Final Marks List and the General Ranking List of successful candidates.
Furthermore, the single judge had directed the TGPSC to either re-evaluate the main exam answer sheets or, if re-evaluation proved unfeasible, to re-conduct the entire mains examination. However, this initial single-bench order was subsequently overturned by the division bench led by the Chief Justice. Following this, the unsuccessful candidates escalated the issue to the Supreme Court, which ultimately referred the case back to the Telangana High Court for further consideration. The latest extension underscores the ongoing complexity and judicial scrutiny surrounding the Group-I examination process.