BENGALURU: More than 50 candidates could not write the Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) mains exam on Saturday as the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) changed its deadline for collecting hall tickets and issued them just a few hours before the exam.
The candidates now want the state government and the High Court of Karnataka to intervene and ensure justice to them.
Earlier this week, the high court allowed around 120 students to write the exam. These candidates were earlier left out because of some confusion in the Kannada translation of a question paper for the preliminary exam held in December last.
After the court order, KPSC said these candidates must submit their applications along with fees by 3 pm on May 2, and that hall tickets could be collected in person at 5.30 pm at its office in the city.
However, with no clarity on the 5.30 pm deadline, at 9.40 pm on Friday, KPSC issued a notification on its website, stating that the candidates must collect hall tickets by 12 midnight. The exam was to be held at 10 am the next day.
This sudden change confused many candidates. Some of them, who were in Bengaluru, rushed to the KPSC office in the rain. But they were stopped at the gate.
When they began protesting to let them in to collect their hall tickets, police resorted to a lathicharge. The candidates, however, continued their protest till they were allowed to collect the hall tickets one by one, forcing them to be at the KPSC office till 4 am.
Though KPSC stated that it followed the court order, the candidates said the manner in which the matter was handled was unfair. They pointed out that more than 5,000 candidates had approached the court, but only those who were part of the petition were allowed to write the exam. They said, “There are 65,000 Kannada-medium candidates. If only a few are helped, is that the social justice promised by the chief minister?”
Many candidates appealed to the governor to stop the exam immediately to prevent injustice to them. Fathima Begum from Kalaburagi said the hall tickets were issued just hours before the exam, causing immense stress not just to those who got last-minute approval from the court, but also to those who had cleared the prelims.
‘Some candidates being favoured deliberately’
Many candidates felt that this was done deliberately to manipulate the results and favour certain candidates. Srikant P from Bidar said if KSEAB could conduct exams for SSLC and PU students smoothly, there was no reason why KPSC should falter, unless there was something to hide. The commission should be completely overhauled and those responsible for this must face action, he added. Madhav Gowda, a candidate from Hassan, sought to know if KPSC is under the control of the state government. The way the commission handled the situation showed lack of accountability on the part of it, he said.