Kozhikode: The Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) has released the shortlist for Sub Inspector (SI) recruitment, which controversially included candidates who did not attend the physical fitness test and others who failed it.

Senior officials raised concerns about the shortlist published on February 27 and February 28, forcing authorities to withdraw the list.

The physical tests were conducted for five categories of applicants who had passed preliminary and mains written exams, including sub-inspector (open/ ministerial/ constabulary) and Armed police sub-inspector (open/ constabulary).
The selection is made based on the interviews conducted among the shortlisted candidates.

Suspicion about the shortlist arose after 726 out of the 928 candidates passed (78 per cent) passed. Passing the tough physical test is not an easy task and hence such an unusually high pass percentage raised eyebrows.

Further investigation revealed that those who did not even attend the physical tests had appeared on the shortlist. If those who have applied for both categories for posting, they have to take only one physical test but appear in both lists for posting. But doubts arose after some of them figured in only one category shortlist.

Many applicants then complained to the PSC citing even the register numbers of those who did not attend the physical tests, forcing it to dump the shortlist.

The complainants have urged the PSC to probe whether such issues persisted in other lists also. Considering that the shortlist is released after intense scrutiny spanning two or three rounds, many candidates are flummoxed by how such glaring inconsistencies have cropped up in it.

The PSC has come up with a bland explanation- the error occurred while uploading the shortlist, adding the revised list will be published soon.