VIJAYAWADA: The AP high court on Friday allowed the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) to continue with Group-1 selection process with riders. The high court said that the appointments will be subject to the final outcome of the petitions challenging the main examination results.
The high court directed the APPSC to take undertakings from the selected candidates that they will not claim any equities and they will get themselves impleaded in the petitions if they intend to contest.
Several writ petitions have been filed before the high court challenging the third manual evaluation of main examination in which 202 out of 365 candidates selected in digital evaluation have been declared ineligible for interviews. The high court had earlier directed to submit answer sheets to the court but declined to halt interview process.
Challenging the single judge order, the petitioners moved appeal petitions seeking directions to restrain APPSC from conducting interviews and publishing final results. Senior counsels B Adinarayana Rao and Jandhyala Ravishankar argued on behalf of the petitioners and senior counsel SS Prasad advanced arguments for APPSC.
Main writ petitions to be heard on July 14
Considering the arguments on both sides, the high court bench comprising Justice C Praveen Kumar and Justice Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao said that the interviews and selection process shall go on as scheduled.
However, the appointments will be subject to the outcome of the main writ petitions scheduled to be heard on July 14.
In the meanwhile, the APPSC has to file counter affidavits and the petitioners have to file replies if any.
The APPSC has to preserve the answer sheets of the candidates selected in the digital evaluation and they should be submitted to the high court registrar (judicial) in a sealed cover. The answer sheets of the candidates selected in third evaluation are also to be submitted to the court in a sealed cover and the APPSC has to provide any other answer sheet if the court intends to examine.
