UPSC finds no foul play by TNPSC exam candidates

A Union Public Service Commission report on Wednesday favoured 65 candidates, appointed as Group I officers, who are under Supreme Court scanner for alleged foul play in their Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission exams.

The candidates are alleged to have committed various violations while taking their test, including using a sketch pen, pencil, two colours, and making irrelevant markings.

A Bench led by Justice Anil R. Dave had in January sought the UPSC’s help on an application by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) for modifying a July 2014 apex court order quashing the appointments made.

The Supreme Court had upheld a Madras High Court’s order setting aside the selection and appointment of the candidates because of exam malpractices in 2000-2001.

However, in a hearing on Wednesday, the Bench found that though the UPSC prima facie found that the candidates had violated TNPSC exam rules, the pencil markings on the answer sheets did not translate into any attempt by candidates to reveal their identity, communicate with or influence the examiners.

Justice Dave, on perusing the report, orally observed that “whatever the UPSC has sent is final”.

However, advocate Prashant Bhushan, arguing for some of the other candidates who had challenged the exam results, said the Supreme Court’s acceptance of the UPSC opinion would amount to a “travesty of justice”. The public would lose confidence in the judiciary as this was a case in which the State Public Service Commission connived with the candidates under scanner, he said.

Of a total 91 candidates, 15 opted for other jobs, three died, eight of them found qualified for selection in re-evaluation and 65 are left.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan submitted that the Supreme Court Bench’s choice to have the UPSC examine TNPSC exam results was “strange and extremely unusual”.

“The UPSC is not an appellate body of the TNPSC,” Mr. Dhawan submitted.

Justice Dipak Misra, the second judge on the Bench, however clarified that the UPSC was only involved as a “verification body”. “We only sought its assistance,” Justice Misra said.

The court gave the TNPSC and the challengers two weeks to file their response to the UPSC report and scheduled the case for hearing on August 19.