Group-1 aspirants express concern over TGPSC mains shortlist

The heart of the issue lies in this revised method that TSPSC adopted this year, which many claim has disproportionately affected candidates from reserved categories, including SC, ST, and BC groups.

Many Public Service Commissions including UPSC allow high-merit reserved candidates to compete in the general category, thereby increasing their chances of selection. The new state rules have restricted these candidates strictly to their reservation categories, a move that many believe has limited their opportunities.

"Under the previous notification no. 4/2023 dated 26/04/2022, top-performing reserved candidates had the chance to be considered alongside general category candidates, which was fairer," said a candidate who wished to remain anonymous.

Instead of applying the rule of reservation, the commission applied relaxation and selected 3,232 candidates under ‘shortfall’ criteria, meaning that the benefits of reservation can be availed by only these extra candidates. Though the process was technically correct as per GO 29, it was against the Supreme Court’s latest judgement and also against the norms of social justice. (For the 563 Group-1 posts available, TGPSC selected 31,382 candidates instead of the 28,150 that would align with the ratio).

TGPSC officials had reportedly defended their approach, stating that the Supreme Court's ruling prohibits applying reservations twice for the same job. Hence, candidates were selected based on relaxation criteria, and the commission assures that reservations will be applied only after the Mains exams.

However, the candidate says that he Commission’s defence is contradicting the SC’s ruling in Deependra Yadav and others Vs State of Madhya Pradesh and others (May, 2024) wherein the court categorically stated that the legal position on the matter is now settled that while selecting the candidates, the Commission should segregate the deserving meritorious reservation category candidates along with the meritorious unreserved category candidates at the stage of preliminary itself so that a greater number of reservation category students will become eligible to appear in the main examination.

"This judgement does not justify TGPSC’s claim of a SC’s ruling it followed. Though the TGPSC representatives have clarified that the selection of candidates was strictly within the 1:50 ratio as mentioned in the notification and that the list of selected candidates by community will be released after the entire selection process is over, many candidates including those qualified for mains are confused about the legality of GO 29 as it is against the SC judgment mentioned above," another candidate told Deccan Chronicle.

Candidates are surprised over the Commission’s intention to go ahead with the existing rules when it still had time to amend the rule in tune with the SC’s judgement either before preliminary exam or before publishing the preliminary result. They are now demanding that TGPSC should release the list of selected candidates by community immediately and to resolve the fundamental issues which raised concerns in light of the recent SC’s ruling. They also demanded the Commission’s clarification on the legality of GO 29 vis-a-vis Deependra Yadav and others Vs State of Madhya Pradesh and others.