TSPSC Chairman B Janardhan Reddy resigns soon after meeting CM Revanth Reddy

HYDERABAD: Chairman of the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) B Janardan Reddy resigned on Monday, immediately after meeting Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

According to reports, the two discussed several board-related topics. Later, Janardhan Reddy formally submitted his resignation to Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan. The Governor forwarded his resignation to Chief Secretary (CS) Santhi Kumari for further action.

B Janardhan Reddy was appointed as the TSPSC chairman in May 2021. However, since the controversial TSPSC leak in March 2023, several aspirants and protestors demanded his resignation.

The preliminary exam for 503 Group 1 positions was only held in October 2022. About three lakh students appeared for the exam, among which 25,000 cleared and prepared for the main exam which was re-scheduled on June 5, 2023.

The Assistant Engineer (AE) exams in various departments held by TSPSC were attended by approximately 55,000 aspirants. The paper leak came to light after the commission complained to Begum Bazar police on March 11, 2023.

Following the TSPSC paper leak, several protests were held by aspirants, students, student organisations, and the opposition demanding justice for the students.They even demanded that the examination be cancelled and demanded resignation of TSPSC Chairman B Janardhan Reddy.

The accused, according to the Hyderabad police, leaked the question paper in exchange for monetary gains. P Praveen Kumar (32), an Assistant Section Officer (ASO), and Rajashekar Reddy (35), a network administrator with the Telangana State Technology Services outsourced to the Commission, stole data from the confidential section to leak the question paper. In March 2023, the exam paper leak case was transferred to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by city commissioner CV Anand. SIT had arrested nearly 100 suspects in the case since then.

The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) cancelled the Group 1 prelims examination held in October 2022 after the special investigation team (SIT) obtained evidence regarding the question paper leak.

TSPSC also cancelled the January 22 assistant executive engineer (AEE) exam and the February 16 divisional accounts officer (DAO) exam.

The exams scheduled on the June 11 exam were also cancelled after the National Students Union of India (NSUI) filed a petition in Telangana High Court voicing concerns about the exam's conduct due to the lack of biometrics.

On August 16, the Telangana High Court issued a notice to the Telangana government in a PIL plea seeking a CBI inquiry into the alleged leak of question papers from Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) Group-I and Assistant Engineer exams.

The Congress, which formed the Government in Telangana a week ago, vowed in its election campaign to revamp the TSPSC, release the recruitment calendar, and fill two lakh government jobs.

As promised, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy met Janardan Reddy and other senior officials on Monday to explore ideas for revamping the TSPSC examination.