VIJAYAWADA: The AP High Court on Tuesday expressed concern over an affidavit filed in the Group-1 Mains examination case by an APPSC officer other than the Secretary. A division bench comprising Justices Battu Devanand and Hariharanath Sharma questioned the legality of such a submission and directed the Commission to file a detailed affidavit with all relevant records by the next hearing on November 17.
Advocate General, Dammalapati Srinivas, informed the court that APPSC had no records regarding the decision to transfer the Group-1 Mains answer scripts from the Commission’s strong room to Haailand. Examination of available records indicated that the answer sheets were sent on December 5, 2021, and returned to APPSC on February 26, 2022. While several xerox copies of payment cheques were available, there were no records explaining the purpose of the expenses.
From March to May 2022, APPSC, through two government colleges, conducted manual evaluation, including printing barcodes, OMR sheets, and control bundles. All details were reportedly placed before the court in a sealed cover as an additional affidavit. However, the bench expressed dissatisfaction that the affidavit did not follow proper legal procedure, noting that a self-declaration was missing and questioning why it was not filed by the Secretary.
The HC warned APPSC to act transparently, stating that any lapses could attract suo motu penal action against officials. This comes in the backdrop of irregularities discovered in 2018 Group-1 Mains evaluation, which led the single judge to cancel the May 26, 2022 list of qualified candidates and direct a fresh examination to be completed within six months, as per the March 13, 2024 verdict.
The HC reserved judgment on appeals and directed APPSC to file a detailed affidavit on answer sheet transfer, evaluation, and expenditure records to ensure transparency in the case.