It was also claimed that applicants who took the exam in Telugu had their scripts evaluated by non-Telugu medium valuers.
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court ruled on Wednesday to annul the Group-I (Mains) exam scheduled for December 2020, citing the illegality of multiple valuations of response scripts. Meanwhile, the State government has decided to file an appeal against the High Court ruling.
In his 85-page decision, Justice Venkateswarlu Nimmagadda noted that conducting the second and third valuations of the Group-I (Mains) exam is illegal, irregular, arbitrary, and violates Rule 3(ix) of the APPSC Rules. The disputed list of eligible candidates from May 26, 2022, is hereby set aside. The court ordered the APPSC to reschedule the Group-1 (Mains) exam for notification No 27/2018 and value the papers strictly in accordance with APPSC rules, giving candidates at least two months to prepare, and to complete the process and selection within six weeks of receiving a copy of court order.
Eight candidates who took the Group-I exam and were successful in digital valuation, qualified for oral interview, but were unsuccessful in manual valuation and were disqualified for interview after the second round of valuation, filed a writ petition in the High Court, highlighting APPSC's poor reputation in the recruitment process for conducting written and oral tests for various posts.
According to the petitioners, when the examination results were declared on April 24, 2021, the results were challenged in a series of writ petitions brought before the High Court, alleging that the computerized valuation of response scripts was illegal and arbitrary. An interim order was given, which stayed the oral interviews.
After disposing of the petitions, the single-judge court directed the APPSC to manually review the exam scripts within three months. However, the petitioners did not dispute the court order. In accordance with the sole judge's instructions, the APPSC conducted traditional answer script evaluations and created a list of candidates who qualified for an earlier interview. It issued a revised result notification of those shortlisted for oral interviews based on the reassessment. However, the hall ticket numbers of the petitioners who were previously selected for the interview were not discovered. The petitioners challenged this in the High Court.
The petitioners contended that the difference between digital valuation and revaluation of answer scripts in conventional mode should not be greater than 62% and that the revaluation was clearly incorrect.
It was also claimed that applicants who took the examination in Telugu had their writings evaluated by non-Telugu medium valuers. This was evident from the fact that 42% of the 326 individuals who qualified for the interview were Telugu-medium. Only 7% of the updated list of eligible candidates for interview spoke Telugu.
Speaking with TNIE, APPSC Chairman Gautam Sawang stated, "The commission will file an appeal regarding the High Court's verdict on the Group-I (Mains) exam." We were startled by the decision to negate the entire test procedure, as the fundamental issue was the appraisal of the papers. So far, the commission has conducted all examinations in an efficient, transparent, and time-bound manner.
TDP general secretary Lokesh welcomed the HC decision, calling it a strong rebuke to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for corrupting the APPSC.
