Candidate challenges cancellation of TGPSC Group-1 selection in HC

Hyderabad: A selected candidate in the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TGPSC) Group-1 recruitment has appealed to the High Court challenging the cancellation of the entire selection process.

The petitioner, Shagufta Firdousi, argued that while irregularities may have occurred during the mains examination, punishing all 563 successful candidates without a proper inquiry was unreasonable.

The appeal came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Apresh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin on Tuesday, September 23.

Senior advocate Dr. K Lakshminarasimha represented the petitioner, while TGPSC counsel Rajashekhar informed the court that the Commission too had filed an appeal.

Following this, the bench adjourned the case to Wednesday, September 24.

‘Cancellation should be rare’

In her plea, Firdousi submitted that cancellation of an entire examination should be exercised only in the rarest of rare situations.

She contended that the single-judge bench, which annulled the entire selection, had ignored the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in West Bengal vs Bhaisakhi Bhattacharya.

Cancellation guidelines

According to those guidelines, exams can only be scrapped if three conditions are met: there must be conclusive evidence of large-scale malpractice, the entire recruitment process is undermined, and a majority of the selected candidates are found to have benefited from fraud.

The petitioner pointed out that no investigation or fact-finding committee was constituted in this case, and yet, the single-judge bench concluded that irregularities had occurred and nullified the exams.

She urged the division bench to set aside the earlier judgment and direct that the original selection list be upheld.