VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court division bench on Monday commenced the final hearing of appeals challenging a single judge’s verdict concerning alleged irregularities and forgery in the manual evaluation of Group-1 mains answer scripts.
Senior advocates CV Mohan Reddy and Surendra Rao, appearing for candidates selected for government posts, submitted that the High Court had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ascertain the allegations.
They contended that the SIT’s final report was favourable to the selected candidates.
The counsel argued that the SIT had only pointed out procedural irregularities in the conduct of the Group-1 examination and evaluation of answer scripts and had not established that malpractice had actually taken place.
They said the SIT had not stated that candidates selected for posts had benefited from any alleged irregularities by APPSC, nor had it found any financial transactions influencing the selection process.
They submitted that APPSC decided to conduct evaluation in Vijayawada after finding that prescribed procedures were not followed during evaluation held at Hailand.
The bench comprising Justice D Ramesh and Justice Hariharanatha Sharma adjourned the hearing to Tuesday after court hours ended on Monday.
On March 13, 2024, a single judge had ordered cancellation of the Group-1 examination and directed that it be conducted afresh, holding that irregularities had occurred during manual evaluation of answer scripts.
The selected candidates and unsuccessful candidates of APPSC subsequently filed separate appeals challenging the verdict.
The High Court constituted an SIT headed by the CID Director General to ascertain the facts. The SIT has completed its investigation into the allegations and submitted its final report.
