The Telangana High Court delivered a landmark judgment as it cancelled the 2015–16 Group-2 recruitment process, calling the entire selection list invalid. The court held that the Telangana Public Service Commission failed to follow the technical committee’s guidelines and allowed the evaluation of answer sheets that showed clear signs of tampering. Many OMR sheets contained double bubbling, whiteners and erasures, which should have disqualified them from evaluation. The judges said the commission had no authority to override the recommendations of the committee or dilute the standards set to protect the integrity of the examination.

The results declared on 24 October 2019 were struck down as illegal and one sided. The High Court directed the commission to conduct a fresh evaluation strictly as per the technical committee’s report. It ordered the commission to complete the entire process and publish a new merit list within eight weeks. Six petitions filed by aggrieved candidates argued that the commission had violated earlier court directions by evaluating answer sheets with visible corrections. Justice Nagesh Bheemappa accepted these arguments and ruled that the commission acted beyond its legal powers.

The Group-2 examination, conducted in November 2016, had faced issues from the beginning. The mismatch between question booklet numbers and OMR sheet numbers created confusion. Though the technical committee allowed minor corrections in Part A, it clearly barred the evaluation of Part B answers if there were erasures or use of whitener. The court said ignoring these instructions undermined the fairness of the exam.

TSPSC later stated that mechanical evaluation leaves no room for bias and that many selected candidates were already working. The commission is now studying the judgment and will decide its next steps after receiving the official order.