Group-1 Row: HC Orders New SIT, Officer Transfers

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the state government to form a special investigation team or reconstitute the present SIT to probe the lapses in evaluation of Group-1 answer scripts.

A division bench of Justice Battu Devanand and Justice Hari Haranadha Sharma heard two petitions on anomalies in evaluation of Group-1 answer scripts here on Wednesday and issued directions to the government.

The court ordered that the SIT be headed by an officer not below the rank of additional DGP. It asked the advocate general to furnish details of SIT in three days to the court registrar (judicial).

The bench said the SIT must investigate the case by taking assistance of scientific and forensic experts of any central forensic science laboratory situated outside AP, on aspects like whether the answer scripts of all the selected candidates are intact and whether there is any tampering in any form; whether the bar codes on answer sheets, original OMR sheets and OMR sheets used during physical valuation at Vijayawada; and whether the details retrieved from such bar codes are same in respect of selected candidates.

The court said the answer sheets of the unselected candidates, who are parties before this court and in the writ petitions, shall be examined in the same lines as to how the newer sheets of the selected candidates are examined.

The answer sheets of the candidates up to 100 numbers below in the merit list, from the last selected candidate, shall be examined in the same lines as that of selected candidates, it said.

The bench said the material already collected by the SIT investigating the matter can also be used for further probe and asked for detection of the tampering with the original answer sheets, by adopting scientific and other techniques.

The SIT must submit the report on or before March 16.

Moreover, in the wake of unselected candidates, counsel contended that the selected candidates being in focal posts are in a position to manage everything. “Information called for from this court through any agency is likely to be in some way or the other influenced by using their official positions,” it was contended.

Hence, the bench directed the state government to post all the selected candidates in non-focal posts until further orders.

The chief secretary shall ensure to issue necessary orders forthwith and submit compliance report before the Registrar (judicial) within a week, the bench said.