HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NAGESH BHEEMAPAKA

WRIT PETITION No. 2885 OF 2020

O R D E R:

The case of petitioners is that inclusion of such

candidates, who have admittedly resorted to scratching, erasing, tampering or using whiteners in Part-B of OMR answer sheets, is wholly contrary to the mandatory instructions contained in the Notification, violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India and contrary to the binding directions issued by this Court in earlier proceedings culminated in Writ

Petition No. 18834 of 2017, which has attained finality.

1.1. Petitioners state that the 2^nd respondent - TGSPSC had issued Notification No.20/2015 and Supplementary Notification No.17/2016 inviting Applications for 1032 posts across thirteen categories under Group-II Services, prescribing the eligibility criteria and qualifications. They being fully eligible and possessing all the requisite qualifications, applied for the said posts, participated in the written examination conducted by TGSPSC and qualified in the written test. Their names were included in the list of candidates shortlisted for certificate verification in the ratio of 1:2. After due verification of their certificates, petitioners were called for interviews held on various dates between July and August 2019, which they duly

attended, thereby completing all stages of selection process and legitimately expecting to be included in the final selection list.

1.2. It is the case of petitioners that, to their utter shock and prejudice, TGSPSC subsequently included in the interview list and final selection list candidates whose OMR answer sheets were found to have been tampered with thorough scratching, erasing, overwriting, and use of whiteners, particularly in Part-B of the OMR answer sheets, which pertain to the candidates' actual answers. Inclusion of such candidates is in direct violation of Instruction No.3 of Part-B of Annexure-IV to the notification, which specifically and unambiguously stipulates that "use of whitener on OMR answer sheet will lead to disqualification". Petitioners contend that this act of TGSPSC amounts to changing the rules of the game after the game has been played, thereby undermining the sanctity of the selection process and eroding public faith in the fairness and transparency of public recruitment.

1.3. It is also stated, in Writ Petition No.18834 of 2017, the Hon'ble Sri Justice P. Naveen Rao had occasion to consider identical issues concerning the same recruitment process. His Lordship, after a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the factual matrix and the legal position, issued comprehensive directions to the TSPSC, inter alia, holding that selection process per se was not vitiated but that candidates who had committed disqualifying errors such as wrong bubbling, double bubbling. non-bubbling, or use of whiteners and erasers, were to be excluded from further consideration. The learned Judge further directed that physical verification of OMR answer sheets must be conducted to ascertain whether any candidate had used whiteners to alter answers in Part-B or personal particulars in Part-A and that such candidates must be excluded from consideration. It was made clear that transparency and adherence to procedure is indispensable to maintain the purity of public employment selections. The operative portion of the said judgment is extracted hereunder for ready reference and clarity of record:

"100. CONCLUSIONS:

1. There is no infirmity in the selection process to conduct recruitment to Group II service pursuant to recruitment notification No.20 of 2015 dated 30.12.2015, per se to hold that selection process is vitiated. Selection process cannot be held as vitiated merely because the OMR sheets of few candidates who have committed errors such as, wrong bubbling, no bubbling or double bubbling of the information relating to Roll number, question paper booklet number, used Whiteners/ used Erasers were evaluated. Such candidates are identifiable and can be separat