The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) will not cancel the recent Selection Post Phase 13 examination, but may conduct a retest for candidates who were denied a “fair chance”, Chairman S Gopalakrishnan confirmed on Monday, August 4.

His remarks come amid widespread protests by aspirants over alleged mismanagement during the exam held between July 24 and August 1.

Speaking to ANI, Gopalakrishnan said, “We are analysing the data. If we find even one candidate who has been wronged, we will conduct the exam again for them.”

Mismanagement, glitches, and backlash

The SSC Phase 13 exam, conducted across 194 centres in 142 cities, saw the participation of nearly 5 lakh candidates. However, the exam window was riddled with operational failures such as abrupt cancellations, software crashes, biometric verification failures, and erroneous centre allotments.

The disruptions triggered protests in Delhi last week and drew severe backlash on social media from candidates, educators, and youth leaders alike.

SSC writes to vendor, but rules out removal

The SSC has also written to Eduquity Career Technologies, the exam vendor, directing the firm to address all technical issues reported during the exam period.

Chairman Gopalakrishnan admitted to technical and logistical lapses, stating, “We will correct and plan in the coming months.”

However, he rejected calls to scrap the vendor entirely.

“Based on one test, I cannot remove them. How will I conduct examinations in the coming weeks? I will have to float a new tender, and it will take until December for a company to be finalised. Till then, what will I do?” he further told ANI.

Calling them “teething problems,” the Chairman said penalties would be imposed for vendor lapses such as system hangs and mouse malfunctions.

AI in question selection? SSC clarifies

On allegations that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) caused question repetition across shifts, the SSC issued a clarification. 

It stated that the system in place is a basic AI model, used only to avoid repetition, and tag questions with metadata for balanced selection.