The Telangana High Court granted an interim stay on Thursday on an earlier single judge order that had set aside the selection list for 1,032 vacancies in TGPSC Group-II Services. The original selection list, released in October 2019 following a 2015-16 notification, has been the source of continuing legal litigation.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin issued the stay while hearing an appeal filed by two successful candidates who are serving as deputy tehsildars presently. The court accepted the argument that quashing appointments made four years ago was "not fair."
Grounds for the Interim Stay
An appeal was made against the said order of the single judge, dated November 18, 2025, directing the TGPSC to prepare a fresh selection list. The appellants who were the successful candidates made the following major arguments before the division bench:
Fairness and Impact: The court agreed that the appellants' contention that quashing appointments made in 2019 was unfair, especially since the whole body of 1,032 qualified candidates was not made a party to the initial writ petition.
Compliance Claim: The appellants contended that TGPSC had already complied with the guidelines and recommendations of the technical committee during the original recruitment, contrary to the order of the single judge.
Judicial Precedent: Appellants argued that the single judge had not considered crucial previous appeals which were cited as precedent.
The division bench directed all concerned parties to file their counter affidavits and posted the matter for further consideration of its merits after six weeks.
The Original Contention: OMR Sheet Tampering
The original writ petition was filed in 2019, before Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka, following allegations of prohibited practices during the Group-II Services Examination.
The petitioners contended that the TGPSC made illegal appointments of candidates who scratched, tampered, erased, and used whitener on Part B of their respective OMR sheets.
The single judge, while quashing the appointments of 14 named respondents in the November 18 order, had directed the TGPSC to "forthwith recast the provisional selection list by excluding all such disqualified candidates and to include petitioners, in accordance with their merit."
The TGPSC had been granted four weeks to complete this exercise. The order of the single judge also placed on record the requirement of transparency and directed the TGPSC to follow the earlier suggestion regarding physical verification of OMR sheets, video recording of evaluation, and uploading of all relevant information to regain public trust.
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