Andhra Pradesh Education Secretary Kona Sasidhar has refuted the allegations surrounding Mega DSC-2025, describing them as baseless, politically motivated and intended to mislead candidates.

Addressing the media on Saturday (May 30, 2026), Mr. Sasidhar said that every stage of the recruitment process was conducted with transparency, fairness and strictly in accordance with the government rules, notifications and legal provisions.

Mega DSC-2025, the first major teacher recruitment drive undertaken in Andhra Pradesh since 2018, notified 16,347 teacher posts and received around 3.36 lakh applications, he said, adding that despite facing 241 court cases, including the one in the Supreme Court, the government had completed the recruitment process within a record 145 to 148 days without any judicial interruption.

Appointment orders were issued to 15,941 eligible candidates, he said.

Rejecting allegations of question paper leak, he clarified that the examinations were conducted through TCS iON, a nationally reputed Computer-Based Testing (CBT) platform used by premier institutions and recruitment agencies.

“A total of 89 examination sessions were conducted across 154 centres, including 19 outside Andhra Pradesh. Different question papers were set through a randomised question bank of nearly 42,000 questions, making the leak technically impossible. No official complaint or evidence regarding any paper leak had been received,” he said.

Mr. Sasidhar denied allegations of deletion or manipulation of data. “All examination records, candidate responses, normalised scores, merit rankings and selection data were securely maintained through encrypted digital systems with multiple verification layers. Draft and final answer keys, normalised scores, district-wise merit lists and combined TET-DSC scores were published as per schedule and remain accessible to candidates,” he said.

Dismissing claims that merit lists were concealed, Mr. Sasidhar said detailed district-wise merit lists containing candidates’ scores, ranks and reservation details were published. Candidates were informed through multiple SMS alerts and the certificate verification was conducted only after publication of merit lists.

Referring to legal challenges, he said that no court found any violation of recruitment rules or reservation norms, nor did any court stay the examination process.

Referring to the widely discussed Naveen case, he clarified that the individual had no role in the conduct of the examinations or digital systems. His candidature was rejected because he had failed to obtain the required permissions and did not attend certificate verification, making him ineligible under the DSC rules.

Reservation policies

The government stated that reservation policies were implemented strictly as per the notified rules, including horizontal reservations for women, persons with disabilities, ex-servicemen and sportspersons, along with SC sub-classification. Sports quota recruitment was held separately, with 421 posts earmarked under the enhanced 3% reservation.

To address candidates’ concerns, a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism comprising Zonal Committees, a State-Level Committee and a Final Appellate Authority examined and resolved nearly 33,000 grievances, he said.

“The Mega DSC-2025 was a landmark recruitment exercise that combined advanced technology, stringent security measures, scientific normalisation, transparent grievance redressal and complete adherence to legal and administrative norms,” he said.

School Education Director Thameem Ansariya and other officials were also present.