GPSC

Thousands of candidates for Gujarat’s top government positions face uncertainty as the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) struggles with multiple overlapping examinations. The commission’s recent handling of Class 1 & 2 civil service exams has drawn criticism for potentially wasting government resources, time, and also hampering candidates' opportunities.

Over 10,000 candidates are set to appear for the main examination of advertisement number 47/2022-23 from October 20 to 25. However, A petition is pending in the Gujarat High Court regarding the final result of advertisement number 30/2021-22, and the result of the main examination for advertisement number 20/2022-23 is also still undeclared. Further, three Class 1 & 2 civil services exams are being conducted simultaneously.

In addition to the overlap, there is also no provision of a waitlist in any of these exams. This means that the same pool of candidates will likely be recruited multiple times — depriving new aspirants of interview opportunities while also leaving several posts vacant eventually.

This situation, arising from the GPSC’s decision to deviate from its standard practice of conducting exams sequentially, has left aspirants confused.

Historically, the commission would declare final results of one exam before proceeding with the main examination of another, preventing candidate overlap. For instance, the preliminary examination under advertisement 40/2018-19 was held after the final result of advertisement 121/2016-17 was declared and advertisement 26/2020-21 was held after the final result of advertisement 40/2018-19 and advertisement 30/2021-22 was also held after the results of the previous advertisement were released so that the same candidates were not sitting for multiple examinations.