T’gana HC defers Group-I exam ruling

The Telangana High Court on Thursday deferred pronouncement of its verdict on the appeals challenging a single judge’s order that cancelled the results and merit list of the Group-1 services main exam conducted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission.

A division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin adjourned the pronouncement of orders to February 5.

The parties were informed by the court that the judgment copy was not ready and the order would be pronounced on February 5.

The court concluded the hearing of arguments on December 31, 2025 and reserved its order.

The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TGPSC) and some selected candidates had challenged the single judge order by Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao, which had set aside the final marks list and General Ranking List of the Group-1 Mains examination.

The single judge, in his order on September 9, had directed the TGPSC to either manually re-evaluate all answer scripts or re-conduct the examinations within eight months, citing "glaring lapses" in the evaluation process.

The TGPSC was directed to complete the process of re-evaluation and declaration of results in eight months, failing which the Main exams will be cancelled and a re-exam will be conducted for all the candidates who passed the Prelims.

However, the division bench stayed this order, allowing the TGPSC to proceed with issuing appointment orders to successful candidates for Group-I posts based on the results.

The bench had made it clear that the appointments will be subject to the final order.

After the division bench’s interim order, the TGPSC released the list of provisionally selected candidates based on the General Ranking List (GRL) announced on March 30, 2025.

The Commission announced selected candidates for 562 posts out of 563 posts for which the Main examination was conducted from October 21 to October 27, 2024.

One post is kept vacant in view of the orders of the High Court in a case.

About 30,000 students had appeared in the Group 1 Mains exams conducted from October 21 to 27, 2024, to fill 563 Group-I posts in various departments.

A total of 31,383 candidates had applied for the exams. These candidates qualified for the Group-1 Mains examination out of around 3.02 lakh who appeared for the preliminary examination held in June.

This was the first time after the formation of Telangana that Group-I Mains exams were held. The last time the exams were held was in 2011 in united Andhra Pradesh.

The results of the Main exam were announced on March 10, and subsequently, a general ranking list and a list of selected candidates were released.

The Group-1 prelims have been marred by controversies over paper leaks and legal battles for not following the norms and irregularities in 2022 and 2023.