HYDERABAD/SRIKAKULAM : A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Centre, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Andhra Pradesh government and Gopala Krishna Ronanki from Palasa in Srikakulam district, who secured all-India third rank in Civil Services Examination-2016, asking them to file counter affidavits in a PIL case.
The bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice T Rajani was dealing with a PIL filed by M Muralikrishna, a Hyderabad-based advocate, seeking directions to the authorities concerned to conduct a probe into the allegations that Gopala Krishna had qualified the UPSC Prelims exams by submitting a fake ‘physically handicapped’ certificate.
The petitioner submitted to the court that Gopala Krishna, who belongs to OBC category, had submitted a physically handicapped certificate with a disability of 45 per cent in orthopedically-challenged category. The qualifying marks for the PHC in the Prelims was 75.34 whereas the same for the OBC category was 110.66.
“Gopala Krishna secured 91.34 marks. He could not have got through the Prelims, had he not produced the fake PH certificate. All the other candidates are allotted three hours time to write the exams, but those with 40 per cent disability are allotted an hour extra which had helped him to qualify the exams,” he pointed out.
Hearing the submissions, the bench issued notices to the UPSC, Centre, AP government and Gopala Krishna for filing counter affidavits, and adjourned the hearing by three weeks.
However, Ronanki Kodanda Rao, brother of Gopala Krishna, who works as a bank manager, claimed that the PHC certificate was genuine.
“Gopala Krishna sustained a severe injury in his right hand in 2002 when he was in class 10. As he was unable to write continuously for more than half an hour, we approached the medial authorities who had issued a physically handicapped certificate with 59 per cent disability. He even got teacher’s job and was selected for Group-1 in 2011 in PHC quota,” Ronanki Kodanda Rao told Express.
However, after qualifying in the UPSC exam, Gopala Krishna was sent to RM hospital in Lodha of New Delhi to undergo a medical re-exam on April 20 and 21, Kodanda Rao said, adding that Gopala Krishna always prefers to wear full sleeve shifts to cover his disability.Referring to the High Court notice, he said that they would file a counter in three weeks. “As we have a genuine case here. We need not to bother about the issue,” Kodanda Rao added. Gopala Krishna, who went to Hyderabad, was not available for comment.
He (Gopala Krishna) could not have got through the Prelims, had he not produced the fake PH certificate. All the other candidates are allotted three hours time to write the exams, but those with 40 per cent disability are allotted an hour extra which had helped him to qualify the exams
— Petitioner
Gopala Krishna sustained a severe injury in his right hand in 2002 when he was in class 10 and medial authorities had issued a physically handicapped certificate with 59 per cent disability. He even got teacher’s job and was selected for Group-1 in 2011 in PHC quota
— Kodanda Rao, brother of Gopala Krishna