Grant Of Extra Chance For UPSC Aspirants In Civil Service Exams Under Consideration Of Centre, Solicitor General Tells Supreme Court

The issue regarding grant of extra chance for UPSC aspirants in civil service exams is under the "active consideration" of the Central Government and the Union Public Services Commission, submitted the Solicitor General of India before the Supreme Court on Friday.

The Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, submitted that the centre was not taking an "adversarial stand" with respect to the plea for extra chance and that a decision in that regard was likely within three or four weeks. The rules might need amendment for granting extra chance, he added.

The SG made this submission before a bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari in a plea by civil service aspirants seeking extra chance on account of COVID19 related difficulties.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that many candidates could not appear and could not prepare properly for the preliminary exams held in October 2020 due to the pandemic situation.

Advocate Anushree Kapadia, the instructing counsel, clarified that the petition was not confined to last attempt candidates and was wider in ambit covering all candidates who faced difficulties in appearing and preparing for the exam due to COVID-19.

The bench posted the case titled "Rachna Singh v Union of India" on January 11, 2021 to await the decision of the Centre and UPSC.

On September 30, the Supreme Court had directed the Central Government and the Union Public Service Commission to consider granting an extra chance to candidates who otherwise have their last attempt in 2020, with corresponding extension of the upper age-limit.

That direction was given by a bench led by Justice Khanwilkar in the case Vasireddy Govardhana Sai Prakash v UPSC while rejecting the petitioners' plea to postpone the UPSC exams scheduled in October 2020 in view of the COVID19 pandemic.

The Court directed the authorities to take a decision in that regard "expeditiously".

The relevant observations in the Court order are as follows :

"The fourth point raised before us is that some of the candidates may be giving last attempt and also likely to become age-barred for the next examination, and if such candidates are unable to appear in the examination due to Covid-19 pandemic situation, it would cause great prejudice to them .In this regard, we have impressed upon Mr. S.V.Raju, learned Additional Solicitor General appearing for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to explore the possibility of providing one more attempt to such candidates with corresponding extension of age limit. He has agreed to convey the sentiments of the Court to all concerned and to take a formal decision thereon expeditiously"

On October 26, the Department of Personnel and Training informed the Supreme Court that the issue regarding grant of extra attempt to last chance candidates was under the consideration of the authorities.

Based on that submission, a bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar disposed of another petition(Abhishek Anand Sinha v Union of India) observing that it was not appropriate for the Court to pass orders when the matter was under the consideration of the concerned authorities.

"The issue raised in this Writ Petition is under consideration of the appropriate authority and in light of the observations made by this Court in order dated 30.09.2020 in Writ Petition(C) No. 1012 of 2020, needful is being done in the matter. As a result, it may not be appropriate to precipitate the matter further. We leave it to the competent authorities to assuage the grievance of the petitioners,as brought before this Court in the present Writ Petition appropriately", the bench observed in the order.

The present petition is filed as a sequel to the above proceedings seeking compensatory extra chance for civil service candidates.