HC orders APPSC to conduct 2018 GroupI Mains exams afresh

Justice Nimmagadda Venkateswarlu of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) to conduct afresh the Group1 (Mains) examination, the impugned notification for which was issued in the year 2018, and has set aside the list of eligible candidates thereof dated May 26, 2022.

He also instructed that the answer papers should be valued in strict accordance with the APPSC Rules and the process of selection completed within six months from the date of receipt of a copy of the present order.

The relief claimed by

Andhra Pradesh High Court.

the petitioners was to quash the list of eligible candidates (dated May 26, 2022) and to release a fresh list of eligible candidates for interview in accordance with law after proper manual evaluation, by holding the action of the Commission in not releasing the first reevaluation conducted prior to February, 2022, and releasing the results based on defective reevaluation by excluding 62% of the previously eligible candidates and several Telugu medium candidates without any basis and rationality as illegal and arbitrary.

The petitioners argued that the evaluation of answer papers was done twice against the rules only to correct wrong answers of certain preferred candidates and that certain other rules framed by the APPSC were also violated.

Meanwhile, the government has assured the selected Group1 candidates that it would appeal against the High Court judgment and secure the future of the selected candidates who had already joined the government service and are working.