HPSC recruitment row: Ayurvedic doctors allege foul play, seek probe

Ayurvedic doctors who appeared for the Ayurvedic Medical Officers (AMO) recruitment exam have demanded access to their answersheets after several top-performing candidates, including gold medallists, were declared not qualified.

At a press conference held with Congress leader Shweta Dhull, the doctors alleged discrepancies in the results of the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC). Dr Ankit Phogat revealed that the HPSC advertised 805 AMO posts after a 12-year gap and approximately 18,000 candidates appeared for Paper 1 on October 9, 2024. This objective-type paper required 25% marks to qualify.

The second stage, the Subject Knowledge Test (SKT), was held on November 17, 2024, where candidates needed 35% to pass. However, many top candidates, including university gold medallists and a PhD scholar from IIT Delhi, failed despite their exceptional academic records.

“Many of us scored over 70% in Paper 1. How can we fail the second paper? Are our degrees fake?” asked one of the candidates.

The affected candidates have demanded a judicial inquiry under a sitting judge and the suspension of interviews, scheduled to start on January 20, 2025, until the matter is investigated.

Dhull alleged that the HPSC has a history of corruption, citing past bribery scandals involving senior officials. “No reasonable person can believe that candidates who consistently scored 65-75% in BAMS and other exams failed to achieve even 35% in such an easy paper,” she said.

Dhull also accused the Commission of misleading candidates by denying access to answersheets, citing the Supreme Court judgment in Angesh Kumar vs UPSC. “This case involved optional papers in UPSC with raw and normalised scores, which is irrelevant here. In this recruitment, all candidates had the same paper. As per the Vikas Sharma vs. Govt of Haryana judgment, candidates have the right to know their marks,” she explained.

The candidates further alleged that the reservation policy was not followed in this recruitment, as the same qualifying criteria (25% for Paper 1 and 35% for Paper 2) were applied to all categories.

Doctors have filed a petition in the high court seeking justice.