Gurugram: The Haryana Public Service Commission’s (HPSC) recruitment for Post Graduate Teacher (computer science) positions has triggered a controversy after only 39 candidates qualified out of approximately 5,100 who appeared for the written test—leaving 1,672 out of 1,711 advertised posts unfilled.
The results, declared on 5 February, have drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties and candidates, with many questioning whether the commission’s evaluation process is designed to actually fill vacancies or keep them perpetually unfilled.
Adding to the confusion, HPSC has taken an unprecedented step—issuing a fresh advertisement for 1,672 posts even before completing the current selection process. This marks the first instance in the commission’s history where a second round of recruitment has been initiated while the first remains incomplete.
The controversy follows a similar pattern from December 2025 when only 151 candidates qualified for interviews against 613 advertised for assistant professor (English) positions.
Congress MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala said the results amounted to a “cruel joke” with young careers. “A recruitment process that started in 2019 has taken seven years to find just 39 eligible candidates for 1,711 posts. This is either gross incompetence or deliberate sabotage of youth employment,” he said.
INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala called it a “systematic conspiracy” to deny jobs. “Candidates who have topped universities and cleared national tests like UGC NET are being declared unfit by HPSC. Something is fundamentally wrong with how these exams are being conducted and evaluated,” he said.
The saga began in 2019
The recruitment saga began in 2019 when the Haryana Staff Selection Commission advertised 1,711 PGT Computer Science posts—1,633 for general Haryana cadre and 78 for Mewat cadre. After the government decided to transfer all PGT selections to HPSC, the commission re-advertised these positions in 2023.
Of the 1,633 Haryana cadre posts, 859 were for General category, 327 for Scheduled Castes, 163 for BC-A, 82 for BC-B, and 163 for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). For the 78 Mewat cadre posts, 43 were General, 15 SC, 8 BC-A, 4 BC-B and 8 EWS.
The fresh advertisement issued by HPSC has failed to provide the mandatory sub-classification of SC posts into Deprived Scheduled Caste (DSC) and Other Scheduled Caste (OSC) categories, with officials stating this would be “done later”.
The same 35 per cent qualifying criterion that resulted in just 39 candidates clearing the previous exam has been retained for the new recruitment.
The advertisement also states that even if more than double the number of candidates qualify the preliminary test, only twice the advertised vacancies will be called for interviews.
A woman whose daughter failed the exam said she had consistently got a first division throughout her academic career but couldn’t cross HPSC’s 35 per cent threshold. “What kind of system declares consistently high-performing students as failures? My daughter cleared HTET, she has been a topper, but HPSC says she’s not qualified enough!” she said.
Manika Ahuja, a double gold medallist with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Panjab University, who also holds LLB and LLM degrees with merit, had earlier failed HPSC’s written test for assistant professor (English) in December.
“Most of us have qualified national-level eligibility tests like UGC NET/JRF for assistant professor positions and HTET for PGT posts. Only 151 candidates were deemed fit for interviews against 613 assistant professor (English) posts, and now merely 39 have qualified against 1,711 PGT Computer Science vacancies,” Ahuja said.
She demanded third-party evaluation of answer sheets and a revision of results. “It is highly disturbing when candidates who have been toppers throughout college and university are deemed incapable of earning their place in government jobs. HPSC must ensure that candidates double the number of posts originally advertised be called for interviews,” she said.
Mukesh Ahuja, an IAS officer of the 2009 batch serving as HPSC Secretary, said it would be wrong to suggest the commission has failed to find suitable candidates across all subjects. He said HPSC advertised PGT vacancies in 20 subjects and assistant professor posts in 26 subjects, conducting 92 different tests.
“The commission faced problems finding suitable candidates only for assistant professor (English) and PGT (computer sciences). Barring one or two subjects where we found slightly fewer eligible candidates, on the rest we found much larger numbers qualifying for interviews than the number of vacancies,” Ahuja said.
He said the commission has fixed minimum qualifying marks at 35 per cent for written tests and those failing to achieve this cannot proceed to interviews.
Ahuja said that before comparing their performance in the university exams with the one in the HPSC recruitment test, candidates must understand that while university exams are qualification-based, the recruitment tests are elimination-based, designed to eliminate candidates step-by-step so as to identify the best-suited people for specific jobs.
He said recruitment exams not just test conceptual understanding, depth of knowledge and analytical skills, but also test one’s aptitude, problem solving, application of knowledge, speed, accuracy and sometimes decision-making under pressure.
As regards the computer science exam, Ahuja said that after the written test, candidates complained the exam was tough and contained questions outside the prescribed syllabus. The matter went to courts and HPSC constituted an expert panel to examine the complaints.
“The expert panel found that the paper being tough is no excuse. However, on questions being outside syllabus, the panel found that one out of 15 questions was outside syllabus. We eliminated that question and awarded marks out of 140 instead of 150,” Ahuja said.
After results were declared on 5 February, only 39 candidates had scored above 35 per cent. “After deliberations, we have decided to advertise 1,672 posts again so HPSC can provide recommendations for the 1,711 vacancies originally advertised,” he said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)