B.PRASHANTH Vs. TELANGANA STATE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Writ Petition, the petitioners are seeking a Writ of Mandamus to declare the inaction of the respondent in taking steps to cancel the Group-I examination conducted on 11/6/2023 pursuant to the Notification No.04/2022 dt.26/4/2022 without obtaining the biometrics of the candidates during the examination and by issuing OMR sheet without mentioning the hall ticket number and the photograph of the candidates in spite of the written representation of the petitioners dt.13/6/2023, as illegal, arbitrary, unjust and unconstitutional and consequently to direct the respondent to conduct reexamination of the Group-I examination held on 11/6/2023 and to grant such other relief or reliefs as this Court deems fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.

(2.) Brief facts leading to the filing of the present Writ Petition are that the respondent issued Notification No.04/2022 dt.26/4/2022 for recruitment to the posts of Group-I service officers in the State of Telangana. The petitioners being eligible for the same were preparing for competitive examinations and claimed to have undergone coaching for appearing in the Group-I and Group-II services recruitment examinations. It is submitted that pursuant to the Notification dt.26/4/2022, the Group-I examination was held on 16/10/2022 forenoon. However, due to leakage of question paper, the said examination was cancelled and re-examination was conducted on 11/6/2023. The Notification dt.26/4/2022 contained general instructions to the candidates and one of the instructions was that the candidates have to report to the examination venue at least 30 minutes before the commencement of examination, to record their photo image/thumb impression on biometric system. The hall tickets were issued to the petitioners for the examination to be conducted on 16/10/2022 and the biometrics of the candidates were taken. However, in the hall ticket issued for the examination to be conducted on 11/6/2023, the said instruction was omitted. On the ground that the biometrics of the aspirants were not obtained during the examination, and apprehending that the examination was not conducted in a transparent and fair manner, the petitioners and others submitted a representation dt.13/6/2023 to the Chairman of the respondent Service Commission and a request was made to cancel the examination held on 11/6/2023 and to conduct re-examination in this situation. When the respondent has not taken any action on their representation, the petitioners have filed the present Writ Petition.

(3.) Sri Aloori Giridhar Rao, learned Senior Counsel representing Sri B.Narsing and Ms. Haseena Sultana Ansari, learned counsel for the petitioners has pointed out several omissions on the part of the respondent in the conducting of the examination on 11/6/2023. He pointed out that the instruction to the candidates 'to report to the examination venue at least 30 minutes before commencement of the examination, to record their photo image/thumb impression on biometric system' has not been followed by the respondent and further that in the hall tickets issued for the examination to be held on 16/10/2022, there was a security feature which will allow the TSPSC to verify the identity and also to check impersonation of any candidate, but in the hall tickets issued for the examination conducted on 11/6/2023, the said instruction has been removed thereby giving an opportunity to the candidates to impersonate in the examination. It is submitted that in the earlier examination, the candidates were advised not to apply any external material like Mehandi, Ink, Tatoos, etc., on their hands/feet in order to take the biometric image/thumb impression of the candidates. He further submitted that the OMR sheets issued by the respondent did not contain the photograph of the candidate and the hall ticket number, whereas in the OMR sheets in the Telangana State Level Police Recruitment Board, they contain the photograph as well as the hall ticket number to avoid any chance of impersonation.