All clear for Group-1 Mains: HC dismisses writs seeking cancellation; exams from Oct 21

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court’s division bench of Justices Abhinandan Kumar Shavili and Alishetty Laxmi Narayana on Friday “dismissed” two writ appeals seeking a direction to set aside Justice Pulla Karthik's order of October 15, who refused to cancel the Group-1 examination.

The bench, by dismissing the writs, paved the way for TGPSC to hold the Group-1 main exam, which is scheduled to be held on October 21, when more than 32,000 candidates will appear.

While dismissing the appeals, the bench observed that, for the sake of six petitioners, the future of more than 32,000 students cannot be put at stake. It observed that “more than 32,000 candidates are likely to appear for the main examination; more than 90% of candidates have already downloaded their hall tickets."

Postponing the exam at this stage would disable the entire administration, which is involved in holding the exam. This will cause a lot of prejudice to several thousands of candidates, that too at the instance of only six petitioners, the bench opined. Two petitioners had already qualified for the main exam. Therefore, stalling the exam process just for the sake of some petitioners is not correct.

The bench opined that the reasons for cancelling the exam earlier—due to question paper leakage—the first exam was cancelled; the second exam was cancelled on the ground that the candidates were not subjected to biometrics. If this time also the exam is cancelled, then several unemployed youth would be put to irreparable loss and hardship.

Therefore, the bench concluded that the learnt Justice Karthik has rightly “not interfered with the case and dismissed the writs refusing to cancel the exam. It found fault with the petitioners’ approach in filing the writs and appeals, creating hurdles in the way of the TSPSC in holding the exam in a smooth manner by observing “the petitioners have participated in the selection process, having participated in the preliminary exam and having been unsuccessful now cannot turn around and challenge the notification dated February 19, 2024.

If they could have challenged the notification, it could have been done prior to the declaration of the results of the exam, not after the results were published."

While throwing light on the six wrong questions raised by the petitioners, the bench made it clear that the final key of the preliminary exam was released only after the expert committee constituted gave its report and observed that courts cannot go into the nitty-gritty of the wrong questions as it is the duty of the expert body to look into those issues.

Justice Shavili observed in his order that “the notification dated February 19 clearly speaks about the entire schedule of the Group-1 exam—the preliminary exam will be held in June and the Main exam will be held in September or October 2024. When once the schedule of the selection process has been set out, the question of postponement of the final exam, which is scheduled to be held on October 21, would not arise at all."

He further observed that postponing the Group-1 Main exam at this stage—when the exam is scheduled to be held just after two days—will cause a lot of inconvenience to several thousands of students.

Moreover, the court has taken judicial note of the services of the TGPSC, which has issued notification for the exam in 2022 itself, and in spite of several attempts to conduct selections, they ended up in disputes, and the final preliminary exam was held in June 2024, for which the final and main exam will be held on October 21. Therefore, this court is not inclined to postpone the Group-1 main exam, the bench said.

The bench brushed aside the petitioners’ contention that the TGPSC had received applications after the last date. It took into consideration the TGPSC contention that a technical glitch has forced it to extend the date of receiving applications by two days.

The bench was hearing two writs, one filled by Satta Shekhar and two others and the other filed by Damodar Reddy and seven others, seeking a direction to set aside the order passed by Justice Karthik. Earlier, he refused to cancel the exam, which is under challenge in the writings.