TGPSC’s 1,032 Group-II officers selection made in 2019 set aside by Telangana Court

Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka of Telangana High Court on Tuesday (November 18, 2025) set aside the selection of 1,032 candidates for Group-II services in 13 categories made by the Telangana State Public Service Commission in 2019.

Pronouncing verdict in a batch of writ petitions filed by some candidates who appeared for the recruitment test for which notifications were issued in 2015 and 2016, the judge directed the TGPSC to re-evaluate the answer sheets of the candidates and finalise the selection. The final results should be in accordance with the directions issued by the division bench of the HC in a writ appeal 1525 of 2018 and as per the recommendations of the Technical Committee issued in 2017.

The Commission should issue appointment orders to the eligible candidates within eight weeks of receiving copy of the verdict, the judge said. The bench also directed the TGPSC to ‘ensure henceforth that evaluation of OMR sheets in all the recruitments was conducted in strict conformity with the notified instructions. The judge made it clear that adequate transparency measures, including physical verification, videography and preservation of records were followed in future to check recurrence of such irregularities.

The Commission issued notification on December 30, 2015 and another supplementary notification on September 1, 2016 inviting applications for 1,032 posts. The written exam was held on November 11 and 13 of 2016. The petitioners contended that OMR sheets used for the exam was divided into Part-A (personal details of candidate), Part-B (answers to 150 questions) and Part-C (requiring candidate’s name and signature).

With some mismatches between question booklet codes and the OMR answer sheets, the Commission constituted a Technical Committee which found that confusion arose among candidates due to mistaken belief among candidates and invigilators that question booklet number must correspond to OMR number. It recommended that while minor mismatches in Part-I can be condoned, the Commission must not evaluate OMR answer sheets where candidates tampered Part-B by scratching, erasing or using whiteners.

A single judge held that candidates who tampered with OMR sheets must be excluded from selection. Appeals were filed against this order. The division bench held that selection should be made as per recommendations of the Technical Committee. Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka held that the Commission had violated the letter and spirit of the division bench order and acted beyond its lawful powers.

The judge said the inclusion of candidates, who had tampered with Part-B of OMR answer sheets was illegal, void and unconstitutional.