The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) issued a statement today, September 28, addressing the discrepancies in the attendance figures for the Group-I Prelims exam held on June 11, 2023. TSPSC clarified that while initial attendance figures were shared with the media immediately after the exam, the exact attendance figure has been confirmed as 2,33,506 candidates, slightly higher than the initially reported number of 2,33,248.
In their statement, TSPSC asserted, "Since lakhs of candidates appeared in hundreds of centres spread across several Districts, there will always be a likelihood of minor discrepancies or variation between the initial figures obtained on the day of exam and the final figures confirmed after scanning." They emphasised that the initial attendance figures were based on information received from collector offices over the telephone, and these preliminary details were provided to the media as a measure of transparency.
On September 23, the Telangana High Court (HC) had issued a verdict ordering the cancellation of the Group-I Preliminary Examination conducted by the TSPSC on June 11, 2023. The decision came after a division bench of the HC reviewed a series of petitions filed by candidates who appeared for the exam, citing concerns about procedural irregularities. This marked the second time that the Group-I Preliminary Examination had been cancelled, further denting the credibility of the recruitment process within the TSPSC.
The petitioners who approached the court raised several issues regarding the conduct of the examination. Notably, they alleged that the authorities failed to collect the biometric details of the candidates, raising concerns about identity verification. Furthermore, they claimed that the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets provided to them did not include hall ticket numbers, potentially creating confusion and hindering the evaluation process.
TSPSC in its statement defending its conduct of the examination emphasised that it is not possible to add or manipulate scripts after the examination and refuted any misapprehension regarding the accuracy of attendance figures. “As alleged there is no scope of adding scripts after exam and there cannot be any misapprehension on this account,” said the statement.