Group 1 Mains exam: Telangana HC asks TGPSC to carry out re-evaluation in 8 months or reconduct test

Justice Rao was dealing with a batch of petitions seeking cancellation or re-evaluation of the Group-1 Mains exam conducted in October 2024, and a judicial inquiry into the alleged discrepancies in the selection process.

After hearing both sides in detail, the court reserved its orders in July 2025.

In his direction, allowing the writ petition on Tuesday, the judge gave the two options to the TGPSC: “A) The final marks list dated 10.3.2025 as well as General Ranking List (GRL) dated 30.3.2025 are hereby set aside. B) The respondent authorities are directed to re-evaluate all the answers scripts of the Group 1 Mains examination by applying the moderation method in terms of Sanjay Singh and another versus UP Public Service Commission manually and announce the results. Based upon such results, the respondent authorities are directed to take steps for filling up of set 563 posts.”
If the two options are not feasible, the court said it would cancel the Group 1 examination.

The judgment further said, “Otherwise, this court is inclined to cancel the group one main examination. The respondent authorities are directed to reconduct the group 1 mains examination in notification 2 of 2024 dated 19.2.2024 for those who have succeeded in the prelims examination. The aforesaid exercise should be completed within 8 months of the receipt of the copy of this order.”
Paper leak and cancellation of preliminary exam

The last time Group-1 notifications were issued was in the erstwhile combined state of Andhra Pradesh in 2011. After the formation of Telangana, the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) issued its first notification for Group-1 posts on April 26, 2022, after an 11-year gap. The initial notification was for 503 posts, and approximately 3.80 lakh candidates applied. Of these, 2.32 lakh candidates appeared for the preliminary examination. However, this initial process was disrupted due to a paper leak, which led to the cancellation of the preliminary exam.
Subsequently, the preliminary exam was reconducted by TSPSC on June 11, 2023. This attempt was also challenged in the high court by some candidates who raised concerns about the lack of biometric attendance and the absence of hall ticket numbers on the answer sheets.
A single-judge bench ruled in favour of the petitioners on September 23, 2023, and cancelled the preliminary exam. This decision was upheld by a division bench on September 27, 2023.

Following a change in the state government in December 2023, the TSPSC renotified the Group-1 posts in February 2024, increasing the number of vacancies to 563. The preliminary exam was conducted again on June 9, 2024, with 3.02 lakh candidates appearing. Even this attempt was not without legal challenges.

Some candidates filed petitions in the high court, and subsequently the Supreme Court, challenging the preliminary answer key and the ST reservations. Both courts, however, refused to intervene, allowing the process to continue. The preliminary results were then released, and 31,403 candidates qualified for the mains examination. The mains exam was held from October 21 to 27, 2024, with 21,093 candidates attending it. The mains results were declared in March, and the certificate verification process for qualified candidates was completed from April 16 to 19.

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