Justice Mummineni Sudheer Kumar of Telangana High Court on Monday dismissed two writ petitions seeking deferment of Group-I preliminary examination to be conducted on June 11 noting that they were not maintainable.
Counsels for the petitioners contended that government decided to go ahead with the Group-I preliminary test even as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had not completed the probe into leakage of question papers from Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC). The government did not even bother to change the officials at the helm of affairs in TSPSC and also some staff members of which were accused of complicity in leakage of question papers, they said.
They informed the court that the Group-I test was being conducted in the State after a gap of nearly 11 years. Justice Sudheer Kumar observed that one should not presume that TSPSC was holding the exam without taking any precautionary measures. “...the SIT is investigating the case... Ultimately, it is the court which takes a decision,” the judge said.
Advocate General B.S. Prasad said the petitioners should hail TSPSC’s decision to convene the exam instead of opposing the same. He informed the court that 3,18,000 candidates were appearing for the exam. Already, more than 1.5 lakh candidates downloaded the hall tickets. To ensure transparency, the government appointed an IAS officer as Controller of Examinations and other senior officers were keeping tab on the entire process, the AG said.
In a separate matter, the HC had adjourned the writ petitions pertaining cadre allotment of 14 All India Service officers to July 5. The Union government counsel sought time to present arguments in the matters before a bench of Justices Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao.
