SSC to hold re-exam for 59000 aspirants hit by technical glitches

NEw new delhi: Nearly 59,000 candidates strike by technological glitches in faculty Selection charge (SSC) Selection Post Phase 13 examination held between July 24 and August 2, will get special re-exam in three shifts on August 29, commission’s chairman S Gopalakrishnan announced on Monday. He also said that SSC postponed the Combined Graduate Level (CGL) exam scheduled from August 13 to mid-September to “resolve the matters, retest the solution and improve operational matter.”The announcements came a day after a massive protest was held by SSC aspirants and coaching teachers at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan over exam irregularities. Students alleged police “lathicharge” as the demonstrations turned chaotic with Delhi Police detaining 40 people from the protest site.“We had the permission for two days but police officials are lying that we had permission till 5 pm on Sunday. Police came to disperse us and beat us brutally when we were demanding smooth conduct of SSC exams. I was physically assaulted by Delhi Police constables,” said Vikash Mishra, an SSC aspirant from UP’s Gorakhpur who participated in the protest.Several Opposition leaders including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi condemned the use of force against students by Delhi Police.A senior Delhi Police official maintained that no lathicharge was done on protestors, permission was granted till 5 pm of August 24 and five police personnel, including three women constables, sustained injuries due to aggressive behavior by some protestors.Protests against SSC have intensified since July over glitches in the Selection Post Phase 13 exam, including cancellations, biometric failures, and mismanagement at exam centres. SSC’s Phase 13 Selection Post recruitment drive is being held for 2,423 vacancies for 10th, 12th, and graduate-level candidates across Group B and C posts in various government departments.Students blamed the new exam conducting agency (ECA) Eduquity for faulty centres, system crashes, and poor logistics during the exam held in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode, hurting future prospects of candidates. Eduquity won the contract to conduct the SSC Phase-13 exams in February 2025 by offering a lower per-candidate bid— ₹220 per student over TCS’s ₹350.“I have been preparing for government jobs for the last two years. I took the SSC Phase-13 exam. My mouse stopped working mid-way during the CBT exam but the centre manager did not resolve the issue. Similar issues were also reported from other exam centers,” said a SSC aspirant from Delhi.Gopalakrishnan said that while the responsibility of conducting exams lies mainly with the SSC, the process also involves four different agencies, each handling a specific role. He said that while private entity Eduqity conducts the exam, the central government’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has been roped for Information Technology (security) and two other entities are engaged for exam monitoring and developing content tools and providing application IT support.“We can not reveal the name of the other two entities due to their confidential nature of work. Unlike the earlier pattern where all activities were undertaken by a single entity, tests are now conducted with active engagement of multiple agencies. Certain entities led by some online tutors and coaching agencies have felt that the disruptions are attributed to the ECA and have demanded that the exams be entrusted to TCS,” he said.He alleged that protests by some coaching institutes are driven by “business losses” due to changes in SSC exam patterns that have reduced the relevance of their material.Gopalakrishnan said about 5.50 lakh candidates took the SSC Selection Post Phase 13 examination held between July 24 and August 2. “On July 24, the test was cancelled at 2 venues out of 194 and rescheduled. On account of technical integration issues, it was found that for some candidates there were disruptions such as system hand, time shortage, gaps in biometric data collection etc. A detailed log analysis has been done and about 59,000 candidates have been identified for whom three special exam shifts have been scheduled on August 29 2025,” he added.Candidates also alleged irregularities during the SSC Stenographer exam between August 6 and 8, however, Gopalakrishnan said the “CBT for stenos exam has been conducted without any hitch.” He added the CGL exam 2025, earlier set for August 13, has been postponed to mid-September to fix issues, retest systems, and improve operations.Another SSC aspirant from Delhi told HT he was given an exam centre which was more than 2000 km away. “I still went to an exam centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Amravati but I could not perform well in the exam due to long hours of travelling.”The SSC chairman said that unlike TCS, the new vendor had fewer centres initially, forcing some candidates to travel far, but from the Stenographer exam onwards, 80% got centres of choice.“Issues are being resolved, CGL is expected to run smoothly, and vendors face strict penalties for lapses,” he added.He said Aadhaar card numbers of aspirants are being used for the first time since July 2025, both at application and exam stages, to curb impersonation in CBTs. Aadhaar-based one time registration (OTR) and venue authentication have blocked fake dossiers and multiple attempts.