The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) today clarified that there were no irregularities in the conduct of the Group 1 prelimimary examination held on June 11 this year.
The commission issued a statement clarifying on the allegations that 258 additional papers had been received.
"We have given the announcement based on the information given by the collectors on the day of the exam. A total of 2,33,248 candidates appeared for the exam. We told the media about it to ensure transparency. According to the OMR scan, a total of 2,33,508 candidates appeared for the exam. The Group 1 prelims was conducted at 994 centres in 33 districts. The exam was written by lakhs of candidates. When lakhs of people have written, it is natural to have slight changes in the numbers, and the final number was announced after the scanning. There is no possibility of some papers being added after the exam, and there are no irregularities in the conduct of the exam," the TSPSC said.
For the uninitiated, on Wednesday, a division bench of the Telangana High Court had
ruled that the single judge's verdict quashing the Group 1 preliminary examination was justified. It said that when the exam was cancelled and re-conducted due to question paper leak, more precautions should have been taken, but that they were not.
The ruling was in response to an appeal by the TSPSC to the division bench challenging the single judge's verdict. The division bench comprising Justice Abhinandan Kumar Shavili and Justice J Anil Kumar ruled that the single judge's decision to cancel the examination and order its re-conducting as per the rules was justified.