The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) will not cancel the recent Selection Post Phase 13 examination, but may conduct a re-test for candidates who were denied a fair opportunity due to mismanagement during the exam, SSC Chairman S. Gopalakrishnan said on Monday.
The Phase 13 examination, held between July 24 and August 1 across 194 centres in 142 cities, saw participation from nearly 5 lakh candidates. However, the exam process was marred by a series of issues, including abrupt cancellations, software crashes, biometric verification failures, and erroneous centre allotments.
Addressing the media amid ongoing protests from candidates, the Chairman acknowledged the lapses and said corrective action is underway. ‘We are analysing the data. If we find even one candidate who has been wronged, we will conduct the exam again for them,’ Gopalakrishnan stated.
To address immediate concerns, the Commission conducted additional tests on August 2 across three shifts. Two centres—Pawan Ganga in Delhi and Educasa in Uttar Pradesh—saw complete cancellations, affecting approximately 2,500 candidates. Of the 16,600 candidates scheduled for the retest on August 2, only 8,048 attended, marking a 60% turnout.
The SSC has written to its exam vendor, Eduquity Career Technologies, seeking an explanation and resolution for all reported issues. The Chairman admitted to “teething problems” with the new vendor and confirmed that penalties would be imposed for system hangs and hardware malfunctions. However, he dismissed demands to terminate the vendor’s contract immediately.
‘Based on one test, I cannot remove them. How will I conduct examinations in the coming weeks? I will have to float a new tender, and it will take until December for a company to be finalised. Till then, what will I do?’ he said.
He added that there had been noticeable improvements in the vendor’s performance over the exam week. “There were issues on the first few days, and then they resolved them,” he noted.
Looking ahead, the SSC is preparing for upcoming exams scheduled between August 6 and 8, expecting 3.5 lakh candidates to appear. Gopalakrishnan expressed confidence that these tests would be smoother, saying that we have seen what issues can arise. The upcoming exams will be much less disruptive.
