Gujarat High Court today directed the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) to announce new dates for its mains exam after candidates appealed for revised dates over lack of preparation time.

As many as 1,927 candidates had filed a petition in the high court, demanding more time – six weeks –  to prepare for the mains exam since they were cleared on July 8, 2024, compared to 3,342 candidates who were cleared on March 18, 2024.

GPSC had announced 127 vacancies for the posts of Deputy Section Officer (DySO) and Deputy Mamlatdar in 2023.

The preliminary exam for the posts under GPSC was conducted on October 15, 2023, and the results were declared on March 18, 2024. However, answers to 19 questions in that exam were challenged by some candidates, and the final results were declared on July 8, 2024.

Following the updated results, 1,927 candidates were declared successful for the mains.

Subsequently, the mains earlier scheduled for July 8 was postponed to July 23.

The 1,927 candidates argued that only 14 days were offered to them to prepare for mains. Compared to that, the candidates whose results were declared in March had four months to prepare.

The candidates demanded at least two months to prepare for the exams.

For a level playing field, the high court directed GPSC to cancel the mains exam scheduled for July 23-26 and to announce the new exam dates that fall within six weeks from today.

The GPSC is ordered to announce the new dates within a week, HC said.

Earlier, GPSC had made changes to the answers of 20 exams and made 280 amendments including changes or cancellations in the questions.

As many as 173 options were also changed in the final answer key of the exam announced in 2023-24.