Civil Services 3rd Ranker Selection Challenged In HC

The Hyderabad High Court today admitted a complaint filed against UPSC Civil Services examination third ranker Gopala Krishna Ronanki, who had availed himself of reservation for the physically handicapped.

The complainant challenged the claim of Gopala Krishna as a handicapped person stating that the certificate was obtained by misrepresenting facts.

The HC found the complaint prima facie admissible, and issued notices to the Union government, UPSC and AP government asking them to file counters within two weeks.

The 30-year-old Gopala Krishna Ronanki, son of Ronanki Appa Rao and Rukminamma of Parasamba village of Palasa block in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, got the all-India third rank in the UPSC's Civil Services 2016 examinations, the results of which were announced on May 31. Ronanki worked as a teacher in a primary school for 11 years before making it through the Civil Services tests this year.

The complainant said that Ronanki had qualified in the preliminary exam of the process only due to his physically handicapped certificate. The cut-off was 110.66 marks for the OBC category that he belonged to, but he had scored only 91.34 marks, which means he would not have cleared the first round. However, since the cut-off for the physically handicapped category was 75.34 marks, he qualified, giving him eligibility to take the second round, the mains examinations.

Curiously, Ronanki was also allowed by the UPSC to appear for his personal interview in Telugu. He faced the interview with the help of an interpreter.