The Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed the violations allegedly committed in the digital and manual evaluation of Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) Group-I examination answer sheets found multiple lapses, including flouting of the APPSC’s own rules.

The notification No.27/2018 was issued on December 31, 2018, and the preliminary examination was conducted on May 26, 2019 and the Main (written) exam in December 2020. Results of the Main examination were declared on April 28, 2021, following the adoption of digital evaluation.

It was identified that the digital evaluation process was implemented without strict adherence to the Commission’s rules and procedures, both in the decision to adopt digital evaluation and in the approval of the evaluator panel, and neither of them had the Chairman’s approval.

Headed by DGP (CID) Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, the SIT, which was constituted through a G.O. dated February 14, 2026, stated in its report dated August 10, 2026, that the APPSC initially had adopted a digital evaluation process and declared the Mains results on April 28, 2021, shortlisting 326 candidates for interviews.

But the digital evaluation process was questioned before the Andhra Pradesh High Court on the ground that such a method was not contemplated in the notification, resulting in an interim order staying the interviews. Subsequently, the High Court directed the APPSC to undertake manual evaluation of the answer scripts.

The SIT investigation established that the digital evaluation was affected by significant procedural deviations at nearly every stage and that the evaluator panel was neither sourced nor vetted in the manner required by the APPSC Office Manual. Persons outside the approved panel nonetheless evaluated scripts and were paid for it.

The process was routed through private, unofficial communication channels without any tamper-proof controls and discrepancies were found between the marks the evaluators recorded and the marks that ultimately appeared in the result database.

In several cases, the mandatory second evaluation was done by a single freelancer rather than an independent second examiner, and these deficiencies formed the basis for the High Court to set aside the digital evaluation and direct a fresh manual evaluation.

Further, the SIT noted that confidential details relating to the examiners were leaked before the commencement of the evaluation process, constituting a serious breach of confidentiality that exposed the evaluation process to external approaches and compromised the integrity and confidentiality expected in a public recruitment examination.

The investigation indicated that the Group-I Mains answer scripts were evaluated on three occasions, which appeared to be contrary to Rule 3(ix) of the APPSC Rules.

It was found that significant procedural changes were introduced during the recruitment process, including implementation of the digital evaluation system, conduct of the manual evaluation at Haailand, reprinting of 48,442 duplicate barcode OMR valuation slips and fresh control bundle slips using the original candidate barcode data, and conduct of second manual evaluation at Vijayawada.

Published - August 12, 2026 07:49 pm IST