Telangana High Court junks two petitions seeking to stop conduct of TSPSC exam

Hyderabad: On Monday a lunch motion petition was filed by T Ramesh, an employee, in the Telangana High Court seeking to know how the Telangana

State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) could conduct the Group 1 preliminary exams scheduled to be held on June 11. The petitioner urged the court to postpone the exam till the investigation into the paper leak case is completed.

Another writ petition was filed by J Sudhakar, an employee, from Gurrampode (Nalgonda district) alleging that the TSPSC secretary who has issued the Group-I exam schedule without changing neither the main commission staff nor taken any appropriate step to conduct the exam in a fair and transparent manner. The third respondent, the TSPSC secretary, and the staff are accused in the earlier Group-I paper leak scam. Therefore the TSPSC authorities again conducting the exam with the same crew is nothing but collusion. “It is illegal, arbitrary and consequently to stay all further proceedings, including conducting the Group-I exam in the interest of justice”.

The single bench of Justice Mummineni Sudheer Kumar heard the lunch motion petition and the writ petition. On behalf of Ramesh, senior counsel Avinash Desai argued that when the police are continuing investigation into the case how can the TSPSC conduct the exam without completion of the probe. “It's a sheer violation of norms; it would cause doubts among the TSPSC aspirants. Sufficient grounds are there not to conduct the exam by the commission, he told the court. The examination is to be held after a long gap of 11 years and five lakh applications have been received by TSPSC, which has to be conducted in a fair and transparent manner, Desai said.

Advocate-General Banda Shivananda Prasad informed the court that postponement of Group-1 exam was not possible at this stage.

More than 3.8 lakh candidates are appearing for the exam. Every arrangement has been made for the exam and postponement is unwarranted as it may affect innocent aspirants, he said.

A criminal case is pending; the investigation has nothing to do with the exam; how does the exam affect the petitioner, the AG queried.

There has been a reshuffle in the TSPSC cadre and an IAS officer has been appointed as controller of exam. Group 1 preliminary exam will be conducted in a fair and transparent manner, Prasad assured the court.

The court dismissed the two petitions seeking postponement of the Group 1 exam.