HC reserves orders on Group-1 exam dispute; verdict on Jan 22

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court’s division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Ghouse Meera Mohiuddin on Tuesday reserved orders on a batch of writ appeals concerning the State Public Service Commission Group-1 exam. The appeals challenge a September 9 order passed by the bench of Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao.

In that order, the judge had set aside the final marks list, dated March 10, and the general ranking list dated March 30 while hearing writs filed by unsuccessful aspirants who challenged the GRL published by the service commission.

The judge had directed the commission to manually re-evaluate all answer scripts of the Group-1 main exam by applying the moderation method in accordance with the judgment in Sanjay Singh and another Vs UP Public Service Commission, and to announce fresh results. Based on such results, the commission was directed to fill 563 posts.

The commission, along with all successful candidates in the Group-1 exam, filed writs before the division bench seeking to set aside the single judge's order. On September 24 the division bench had passed interim orders suspending the single judge's directive and permitted the commission to issue appointment orders to the selected candidates, subject to the final outcome of the writs.

Following the interim relief granted to the 563 candidates, the unsuccessful candidates approached the Supreme Court challenging the order. The SC had declined to entertain their plea and remanded the batch of cases to the HC, with a request to prioritise the hearing of the writs.

Over the past ten days, the division bench heard extensive arguments from both sides. A panel of senior counsel, including Dama Sheshadri Naidu of the SC, Vidyasagar, Rachna Reddy, representing the unsuccessful candidates argued for setting aside the entire selection process of the Group-1 exam.

Niranjan Reddy, senior counsel and Advocate-General A Sudarshan Reddy appeared for the commission and presented their arguments at length. After hearing all parties, the division bench reserved orders for pronouncement on January 22.