VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday delivered a verdict cancelling the Group-I (Mains) exam held in December 2020, stating that conducting valuation of the answer scripts multiple times was illegal. Meanwhile, the State government has decided to go for an appeal against the High Court verdict.
In his 85-page verdict, Justice Venkateswarlu Nimmagadda stated that conducting the second and third valuation of Group-I (Mains) exam is illegal, irregular, arbitrary and violative of Rule 3(ix) of the APPSC Rules. The impugned list of eligible candidates dated May 26, 2022 is hereby set aside. The court directed the APPSC to conduct Group-1 (Mains) exam afresh for notification No 27/2018 and value the papers strictly in accordance with the APPSC rules, giving at least two months time to candidates for preparation and complete the process and selection within six weeks from the date of receipt of copy of court order.
Eight candidates, who appeared for Group-I exam and successful in digital valuation, qualified for oral interview, but unsuccessful in manual valuation and disqualified for interview after the second round of valuation, filed a writ petition in the High Court highlighting the bad reputation of APPSC in the process of recruitment for conducting written and oral tests for various posts.
According to the petitioners, after the examination results were declared on April 24, 2021 and the results were questioned in a batch of writ petitions filed before the High Court, on the ground that the digital valuation of answer scripts was illegal and arbitrary. Subsequently, an interim order was issued staying the oral interviews.
Later, disposing of the petitions, the single judge bench directed the APPSC to evaluate the scripts of the exam manually, within the stipulated time of three months. Petitioners, however did not challenge the court order. In pursuance to the directions issued by the single judge, the APPSC had undertaken the valuation of answer scripts by conventional mode and prepared a list of candidates eligible for earlier interview. It released the revised result notification of candidates short listed for oral interview based on the revaluation. However, the hall-ticket numbers of the petitioners, who were earlier selected for the interview, were not found. The same was challenged by the petitioners in the High Court.
The contention of the petitioners was that the variation between the digital valuation and revaluation of answer scripts in conventional mode should not be more than 62% and that the revaluation was definitely not correct.
It was also contended that the candidates who wrote the examination in Telugu medium, their scripts were valued by non-Telugu medium valuers. This was clear from the fact that in the original/earlier final list of candidates qualified for interview, there were 42% of Telugu medium candidates out of 326. Whereas in the fresh list of eligible candidates for interview, there were only 7% of Telugu medium candidates.
Speaking to TNIE, APPSC Chairman Gautam Sawang said, “The commission will file an appeal regarding the High Court’s verdict on Group-I (Mains) exam. We are shocked by the judgement nullifying the entire examination process, as the main issue was the evaluation of the papers. The commission has conducted all examinations so far efficiently, transparently, and within a predictable time frame.”
Welcoming the HC verdict, TDP general secretary Lokesh said it was a tight slap for Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who corrupted the APPSC.