The unending saga of Telangana's Group-1 exam

Hyderabad, Sep 14 (IANS) The ordeal of unemployed youth who have been toiling for years to secure Group-1 government jobs in Telangana appears to have no end, as the process to issue appointment letters to 563 selected candidates has hit a fresh legal roadblock.

The single-judge bench's order, directing Telangana State Public Service Commission (TGPSC) to annul the results of Group-1 Mains and manually re-evaluate answer scripts, has landed the selected candidates in a quandary.

Though TGPSC has decided to file a review petition, challenging the single-judge order, a fresh round of legal battle is adding to the anxiety of selected students who were waiting to receive the appointment letters.

The candidates, who were selected from among 21,000 candidates who appeared in the Mains, fear that they may lose out in the re-evaluation process.

The selected candidates, when the results were announced in March, were happy that their years of hard work was finally paying off.

"Certificate and medical verification processes were also completed. I was eagerly waiting for the appointment letter, but now I feel that the six years I put into preparing for the exams may go to waste," said a candidate, who did not wish to be named.

The selected candidates feel that a fresh ranking list after re-evaluation may lead to an end to litigation.

The candidates say they made it to the rankers' list after many sacrifices, years of toiling and career shifts, and if the re-evaluation results in them losing out altogether, it could be the end of the road for them.

"We were selected after a fair process, and now annulling the results and going for re-evaluation is a huge blow for us," said another candidate.

The High Court on September 9 directed TGPSC to re-evaluate the answer sheets of the Group-I Main examination.

Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao delivered the verdict on a batch of writ petitions challenging the evaluation process. The court even warned that it would not hesitate to cancel the Group-I exam and order a re-exam if the orders were not followed.

The petitioners alleged many irregularities in the entire selection process. They mentioned that about 71 people got selected from just two centres in Hyderabad. They also raised doubts about the recounting method. They cited the case of a candidate who scored 485 marks, but the same was reduced to 422 after she applied for a recount.

TGPSC counsel P. S. Rajasekhar, however, argued the petitioners made baseless allegations. According to him, of the 20 petitioners, 19 are government employees who approached the court with an objective to stall the recruitment process.

Five lakh aspirants had appeared in the Group-I preliminary examination on June 9, 2024. The results were declared on July 7, and a total of 21,000 candidates were selected for the Mains, conducted between October 21 and 27. The results were announced on March 10, 2025.

After completing the recounting process, the general ranking list was released on March 30.

As some candidates approached the High Court alleging irregularities in the recruitment process, the High Court directed TGPSC in April not to issue appointment letters to the selected candidates till adjudication of a batch of petitions challenging irregularities in the selection process.

The Group-I exam has been mired in a series of controversies long before the current phase of litigation.

The notification for the exam was originally issued in 2022. Nearly 2.86 lakh candidates had appeared in the Prelims held on October 16, 2022. This was the first Group-1 exam after the formation of Telangana State in 2014.

However, TGPSC cancelled the exam in March 2023 following question paper leakage that rocked the Commission. It had to cancel several other recruitment exams due to the scam allegedly involving some of its own employees.

The TGPSC conducted the Group-1 Prelims again on June 11, 2023, in which over 2.32 lakh candidates had appeared.

However, the High Court cancelled the exam in September after some candidates filed petitions, alleging gross violations in the conduct of the examination. They complained that biometric attendance was not implemented, and OMR sheets did not carry hall ticket numbers and photographs of the candidates.

The cancellation of the exam twice had sparked massive protests by government job aspirants. The main opposition at that time - Congress and BJP - had supported the protests and accused the then Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government of betraying unemployed youth with its inefficiency in conducting the recruitment process transparently and fairly.

This had also become a major issue in the Assembly elections held in November 2023. The Congress party had promised to cleanse TGPSC and to conduct the job recruitment exams without any loopholes.

During the election campaign, Rahul Gandhi had met the job aspirants and promised two lakh government jobs. The Congress, in its manifesto, included a job calendar.

However, the latest episode has provided ammunition to the main opposition BRS and BJP to attack the Congress government.

The BRS has come out in support of Group-I candidates who alleged irregularities and demanded that the government conduct a re-exam.

The main opposition party is also demanding a judicial probe into the allegations that bribes were taken by ministers and officials from Group-I candidates.

BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao accused the government of betraying the aspirations of unemployed youths by selling Group-I posts.

"The government auctioned the jobs in the open market, thereby dashing the hopes of lakhs of aspirants who spent years preparing for competitive examinations, investing their valuable time and their parents’ hard-earned resources," said Rama Rao.

He demanded the constitution of a judicial commission to investigate the large-scale malpractice and to bring to light those who “sold government jobs.”

KTR also called for a special Assembly session to debate the Group-I scam and hold the Congress government accountable. He said that only a thorough judicial inquiry and a transparent re-exam could deliver justice to unemployed youth and prevent the recurrence of such scandals in the future.

Telangana State BJP President N. Ramchandra Rao termed the High Court order a "slap in the face" to the Congress government.

"It vindicates the BJP's long-standing stance on the irregularities and mismanagement in the Group-I recruitment process. From the release of the notification to the flawed evaluation process, the Telangana Public Service Commission has failed at every step. The government, with its incompetence, is playing with the futures of thousands of aspirants," he said.

However, Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy hit back at opposition parties, saying they were deriving sadistic pleasure from the court's order.

He alleged that the only intention of the BRS is to stall the Group-I at any cost, as they could not conduct it in their 10-year rule.

"BRS couldn't even conduct DSC, Group-1, Group-2 or Group-4 exams. Was it not during the BRS rule that the Group-I papers ended up at photocopying centres?" he asked.

--IANS

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