Hyderabad, Oct 21 (IANS): The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TGSPSC) Group-I Main examinations began on Monday after the Supreme Court declined to grant a stay on their conduct.

The exams began at 46 centres in the afternoon after the apex court rejected the petitions filed by some candidates challenging the Telangana High Court order refusing to order postponement of the exams.

A section of candidates have been protesting for the last few days to demand the postponement of the exam till the High Court decides on their pleas challenging Government Order (GO) 29, which tweaked the reservation rules. Opposition parties, the BRS and the BJP had backed their demand.

After the apex court refused to pass interim orders to stop the exam, the TGSPSC went ahead with the conduct of the exam to fill 563 Group-I posts in various departments of the state government.

Candidates, who had reached the exam centres much before the scheduled time of 2 p.m., were anxiously waiting for the Supreme Court orders. Once it became clear that the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions, the authorities went ahead with the conduct of the exams at all 46 centres in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal Malkajgiri districts.

A total of 31,383 candidates have applied for the exams, which will continue till October 27.

These candidates qualified for the Group-1 Mains examination out of around 3.02 lakh who appeared for the preliminary examination held in June.

Police made elaborate arrangements at the exam centres to prevent any protest or untoward incident. Officials were checking the hall tickets of the candidates before allowing them into designated centres.

On the first day, the candidates appeared for the General English exam. The exam will continue till 5 p.m. Authorities closed the gates an hour before the exam was scheduled to begin. Those coming late were not allowed.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has conveyed his best wishes to the candidates writing the Group-I exam. He advised the candidates to write the exams with full concentration without any worries. The Chief Minister wished that the candidates pass the exam and become partners in the reconstruction of Telangana.

This is the first time after the formation of Telangana that Group-I Mains exams are being held. The last time the exams were held was in 2011.

The Group-1 prelims have been marred by controversies over paper leaks and legal battles for not following the norms and irregularities in 2022 and 2023. Keeping this in view, the TGSPSC has made fool-proof arrangements. Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari has asked all officials to leave no room for any irregularities.