The Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC) on Wednesday appealed against a Telangana High Court order that directed it to re-evaluate the answer scripts of the Group-I mains exam within eight months or conduct the exam again. The TGPSC contends that the single-judge order was based not on evidence but “merely surmises and conjectures”.
In its appeal against the September 9 judgment, the TGPSC has cited 37 grounds on which it says the judgment is “erroneous” and “perverse”.
For 563 Group-1 posts, 3.02 lakh candidates had appeared in the preliminary examination and 31,403 of them qualified for the mains, which were held from October 21 to 27, 2024, and 21,093 candidates attended it. The mains results were declared in March 2025.
The TGPSC asserts that the court’s order is “mutually contradictory” and its inclination to cancel the examination is unwarranted. A central point in the appeal is the maintainability of re-evaluation, as the TGPSC says its rules stipulate that re-evaluation of answer sheets “shall not be entertained under any circumstances”. The TGPSC also cited a Supreme Court directive that said the courts cannot direct re-evaluation unless the rules provide for it.
The appeal claims the single-judge bench failed to appreciate the TGPSC’s contentions, particularly regarding a discrepancy in the number of candidates who appeared for the mains examination. The TGPSC explains the difference as a result of “minor variations” in the “on the go” list and a thorough reconciliation process. The appeal also claims that the bench failed to appreciate that the respondents resorted to fabricating a memorandum of marks. It also claims that the respondents approached the court while relying on forged documents with full knowledge.
The appeal also went on to explain the difference in the number of candidates, process of reconciling attendance figures, use of biometrics, issuance of separate hall tickets for preliminary and mains examinations, alleged bias in the allocation of test centres to candidates including women, performance of candidates in a few select centres, moderation method, evaluation method, and answer keys.
Regarding candidates with successive hall ticket numbers scoring identical marks, the TGPSC’s appeal claims that it is normal when a large number of people take an exam.
