APPSC Group-1 Exam: The Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission's (APPSC) Group-1 recruitment process has now come under the scanner following the paper leaks and student protests in Jharkhand. To probe the allegations, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The investigative team has found several irregularities, including overwriting, unauthorised corrections, signature mismatches, and procedural deviations in the students’ answer sheets of Group 1. The SIT submitted the final report to the High Court stating that forensic examination of 736 Group-I Mains examination records has unraveled serious lapses in the evaluation process, thus questioning the OMR valuation technique. 

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What Led To SIT Probe?

The APPSC earlier released the Group I results in April, shortlisting 326 candidates. To evaluate candidates’ answer sheets, the Commission adopted a digital valuation system. After the allegations came to light, the valuation process changed to manual evaluation for two rounds. Investigating the issue, the SIT found that 202 candidates shortlisted out of 326 candidates via the digital valuation process did not figure among the 325 candidates shortlisted after manual valuation. This raised concerns about the consistency of the valuation process, leading to petitions before the High Court in 2022. On March 13, 2024, the High Court held that the second and third valuation processes were irregular, leading to a fresh conduct of the Group 1 examination. 

Findings of SIT

Addressing the allegations, the High Court on February 11, 2026, directed the State to form or reconstitute an SIT to investigate the irregularities in the digital valuation process. The Andhra Pradesh Government formally constituted the SIT on February 14, 2026. The final report has now been submitted with details of the lapses that highlight the inconsistency of the valuation process. 

After examining  736 Group 1 Mains records, the SIT found overwriting and alterations in 718 of them. This corresponded to 97.55 per cent of the records examined. The report also included 159 signature mismatches, 29 alterations without examiner initials, and 114 corrections apparently made with different inks across different stages. Despite APPSC prohibiting the use of the Haailand evaluation fluid, 169 valuation slips were found. Furthermore, discrepancies in 405 of the 408 valuation slips belonging to the writ petitioners. 

Shortcomings In Digital Valuation 

SIT flagged major shortcomings in the digital valuation, including the absence of the mandatory approval from the chairman. Alterations between evaluator records and the final database have also been reported. However, the SIT investigation does not prove that the original answer scripts of the shortlisted candidates have been tampered with or substituted. Third-valuation referrals rose sharply from 0.45 per cent in the previous Group-1 recruitment to 10.2 per cent in the recruitment under investigation.

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