Clearing the way for the conduct of Group-I (Mains) examinations from October 21, Justice Pulla Karthik of the Telangana High Court (HC) on Tuesday, October 15, dismissed two writ petitions filed by a few aspirants challenging the preliminary examination conducted by the Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC) on June 9.

The first petition

In the first petition, the candidates argued that the preliminary test was held in violation of an earlier judgement by a single judge of the high court, which had been upheld by a division bench.

They contended that clubbing 63 newly sanctioned posts with the originally notified 500 posts for the selection process was unconstitutional and arbitrary.

Additionally, the petitioners argued that the government's decision to extend 10% reservation for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates should have been limited to the 63 newly added posts, rather than applied to all 563 vacancies, stated a report by The New Indian Express.

The second petition

The second petition challenged the accuracy of the answer options provided for some questions in the preliminary test. The petitioners requested the court to direct the TGPSC to revise the answer key and reassess the list of qualified candidates.

After hearing both petitioners, Justice Karthik dismissed them. With the court's verdict, the Group-I exams are now set to take place as scheduled from October 21.