The Andhra Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the School Education Department and other authorities over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the AP Special Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026 for in-service teachers.
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on Wednesday, November 11, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice Challa Gunaranjan directed the authorities to submit complete details concerning the examination and the allegations raised by the petitioner.
The court also recorded the state government's assurance that digital records relating to the examination and question bank would be preserved.
The matter has been adjourned to December 16, 2026.
The PIL was filed by Professor Dr Guntupalli Srinivas from Vijayawada, seeking cancellation of the Special TET conducted for in-service teachers and directions to conduct the examination afresh.
The petitioner alleged that the examination was conducted in violation of the guidelines prescribed by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate G Venkateswarlu argued that the examination involved systematic malpractice, with questions allegedly made available to candidates in advance through a practice question bank on the LEAP application.
The petitioner also sought interim directions to halt the declaration of results and subsequent examination-related proceedings.
One of the major allegations raised before the High Court concerns the similarity between the questions asked in the examination and those available in the LEAP application's practice question bank.
According to the petitioner:
A total of 1,350 questions were examined for similarities.
Of these, 1,345 questions and their answer options allegedly matched those available in the LEAP question bank.
Only five questions reportedly had changes in their answer options.
The practice question bank was allegedly removed from the LEAP application after the PIL was filed.
The petitioner argued that the alleged similarities raised concerns over the fairness of the examination.
However, these are allegations made before the High Court and have not been established as findings of the court.
The petitioner also requested directions to preserve digital records, server logs and question bank files related to the examination.
Responding to the allegations, government pleader Gurram Ramachandra Rao, representing the School Education Department, informed the court that two other PILs concerning the Special TET were already pending.
The government disputed the claim that 1,350 examination questions had been drawn from a practice question bank containing approximately 1,600 questions.
According to the government's submissions, the examination questions were selected from a larger pool of approximately 16,000 questions.
The government pleader maintained that the petitioner's allegations were factually incorrect.
He also assured the High Court that all digital records relating to the examination and preparation of question papers would be preserved.
After hearing both sides, the division bench directed the School Education Department's Principal Secretary, Commissioner of School Education and officials of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), among other respondents, to furnish details concerning the allegations.
The court recorded the government's assurance regarding the preservation of examination-related digital records.
It also directed the registry to club the present PIL with the two petitions already pending in connection with the Special TET.
During the hearing, the petitioner requested that the examination results be made subject to the court's final judgment.
The bench observed that when a matter is pending judicial consideration, the outcome remains subject to the final decision, and a separate direction was unnecessary.
No. The Andhra Pradesh High Court has not ordered the cancellation of the Special TET 2026.
The petitioner has sought cancellation and a fresh examination, but the court has not granted that relief at this stage.
The court has instead sought responses from the authorities and recorded the government's assurance to preserve relevant digital evidence.
The next hearing is scheduled for December 16, 2026.
Candidates and in-service teachers are advised to distinguish between the relief sought by the petitioner and the directions actually issued by the High Court.