Andhra: Group-I aspirants plan to move SC

HYDERABAD: APPSC Group I examination aspirants, who qualified for the mains with the AP High Court verdict just two days before the examinations, were contemplating to file a petition in the Supreme Court, requesting for a direction to the APPSC to conduct main examinations again after giving adequate time for them to prepare.The APPSC should give at least 45 days to all the candidates qualified for mains to prepare for the exams, but in their case it violated the rule, they alleged.Few of them met APPSC chairperson Rachel Chatterjee and submitted a representation requesting her to take steps for conducting the mains afresh to them. Earlier the APPSC conducted Group 1 prelims again for those who could not take them due to T agitation, they said.A total of 10,500 candidates have been qualified for the mains. Another 1,047 candidates secured 83 marks which is the cut off mark for qualifying. But the APPSC selected only 43 among the 1,047 candidates who scored 83 marks on the basis of their age. Challenging the denial to write the mains despite scoring 83 marks, six of the remaining 1,004 approached the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, which dismissed their plea.Then they moved the High Court which gave a ruling in their favour making the other 1,004 candidates eligible to write the exams just two days before the main examinations. The candidates met APPSC chairman seeking postponement as they had no time to prepare, but she said the decision rests with the state government. They also met chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in this regard but in vain.Speaking to Express, A Nagi Reddy, one of the six petitioners, said the state government and the APPSC had allowed about 1,400 candidates to write the prelims again as the T protestors disrupted the examination held in September last. The commission held the preliminary examination again in October to those who could not write the same earlier.He said justice was denied to them despite winning a legal battle as the APPSC failed to provide 45 days minimum time for them to prepare for the mains.If the APPSC and the state government do not hold the main exam again they would move the Supreme Court for justice, Reddy said.