Amaravati, Jun 17 (IANS): The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday issued a four-week stay on the conduct of the state Public Service Commission Group 1 examination interviews that were scheduled to begin from Thursday.

After hearing eight petitions that were filed in the matter alleging irregularities in the conduct of the Group 1 mains examination, the court in its interim order issued a four-week stay on the interview process.

Following the court stay, the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission has postponed the interview process by four weeks, stating that fresh dates will be announced shortly.

On Tuesday, the court had reserved its judgement after hearing arguments on the matter.

The petitioners' lawyers had contended that the mains examination was not conducted properly. They also claimed that the candidates were not informed in advance about digital evaluation of answer sheets.

They have also objected to the evaluation of Telugu medium answer sheets within the state, while English medium answer sheets were evaluated outside the state.

The government lawyer, on his part, argued that the examination was conducted as per the rules.